By Oyinlola Awonuga (The New Diplomat’s Entertainment, Style and Sports Desk)
Chelsea has made their interest in Brazil star midfielder Philippe Coutinho official, after opening negotiations with Barcelona, multiple reports from spain said.
Coutinho has struggled to settle at Barcelona since his £142m move from Liverpool in January 2018. Despite an impressive loan spell with Bayern Munich this season, his future still lies away from Barcelona, and Coutinho’s agent escalated rumours by claiming earlier this month that he “would love” to play in the Premier League again.
And the door has been opened for Coutinho to return to England thanks to Bayern Munich not activating a €120m (£105m) option to buy the midfielder at the end of his loan in Germany.
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According to reports, when Chelsea learned of this, they contacted Barcelona to begin negotiations for a fee. The report adds that Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is assembling a squad for the 2020-21 season which will be able to compete with Liverpool and Manchester City at the Premier League’s summit.
However, it is expected that negotiations could be drawn out as the clubs thrash out a fee for Coutinho. Barcelona might not let the 27-year-old leave the club for a huge amount less than they paid two years ago, and are aiming to sell for no less than €90m (£79m).
Meanwhile, Chelsea is unwilling to spend that much on the player believing it can bargain for a lower fee based on Coutinho’s desire to return to the Premier League coupled with Barcelona’s need to raise funds for their summer transfers.
The Catalan club are reportedly planning a busy window in which they will bring Neymar back to the club from Paris Saint-Germain and sign Inter Milan star Lautaro Martinez. Neymar left the club in 2017 for £198m and Lautaro Martinez has a release clause of €111m (£98m). Consequently, any deal for both stars will cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
