Barca President Reveals Further Details on Philippe Coutinho Transfer Saga

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has reiterated the Catalan club's claim that Liverpool were willing to sell Philippe Coutinho for €200m this summer, but that such a figure was deemed too expensive at Camp Nou.

The line from Liverpool has always been that Coutinho was not for sale at any price, but for the second time Barça have contested this version of events and say a firm valuation was set.

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Therefore, from their side of the story, the only thing that stopped Coutinho from being a Barclona player was the club's unwillingness to meet that asking price.

"I will not say how much we offered, but [Liverpool] asked for €200m," Bartomeu claimed while speaking to Catalan broadcaster TV3 this week.

"We weren't going to give €200m or €150m - we decided to step away from such an expensive market, our offer was less than €100m, with add-ons it could have reached €120m."

Barça are believed to have had three bids in total turned down for Coutinho over the course of the summer, with the player himself even submitting a transfer request to try and force the move.

"Money has come into football from outside the game and made [the transfer market] more expensive, which explains what happened with Coutinho," Bartomeu added.

The first time the €200m claim was made it was Camp Nou director Albert Soler, speaking the day after the transfer window in Spain closed earlier this month.

"A price of €200m," he explained. "We decided we wouldn't do it. That's an example of the way football is now. This club and this board will not get involved in that, though."