PSG Look to Muscle in on Barcelona Target Philippe Coutinho

The Philippe Coutinho saga looks poised to carry on into 2018, with the Brazilian star still very high on Barcelona's priority list.

The Spanish club made several attempts to recruit the attacking midfielder in the summer transfer window, but were continuously frustrated by Liverpool adamantly holding on to their player.

Having formed a fresh rivalry with French giants Paris Saint-Germain, who snatched Coutinho's compatriot Neymar up during the period, completing a historic, world-record £198m transfer, Barca could find themselves embroiled in another bitter battle with the Ligue 1 side pretty soon.

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According to Spanish source Sport, PSG are in for Coutinho as well, and will make their own attempts to lure him to France.

The report claims that club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has tasked sporting director Antero Henrique and sporting co-ordinator Maxwell with contacting the player's representatives.

The French side are said to have made an approach back in July at Neymar's behest and were willing to match the Catalan outfit's last offer.

Neymar is also reported as having begged Coutinho to join him at PSG, sending him several messages via Whatsapp. Coutinho, though, wanted nothing of it and tried to force a move to the Camp Nou instead by handing the Reds a transfer request and refusing to play in certain matches.

Barcelona will try their best to sign Coutinho in January, per the report, but PSG will be unable to do so after buying both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. 

FFP rules will make another top signing impossible this season, so their best bet would be to somehow convince the attacker to snub Barca and wait for them until next summer.