Arsene Wenger has admitted that he doesn’t even know if Barcelona have actually bid for Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho.
Wenger is the latest person to have his say on the ongoing situation between Coutinho, Liverpool and Barcelona. And, unlike most, he’s been in the same position so many times that he’s actually qualified to comment.
“Every situation is different. It depends what has been agreed sometimes between you and the players so it’s very difficult for me to interfere in that because I don’t know what’s happening between Coutinho and Liverpool,” Wenger said during his press conference on Thursday.
“I have enough to deal with my own situations here and I don’t know where he stands. I’m not even sure that Barcelona is in for him, I don’t know. It’s always difficult because you want your players to be happy, but the players have contracts.
“In general you want the players to stay with that club when they have contracts but every situation is different and you have to know really, internally, what is going on.”
Coutinho reportedly handed in a transfer request recently with Barcelona being heavily linked with a move for the 25-year-old. After this, it was said that the Catalan giants were willing to cough up £135m for the attacking midfielder, since they allegedly have around £198m from selling Neymar to PSG earlier in the window.
As Wenger says, however, it’s still uncertain whether Barca have actually made an official approach.
Coutinho is set to miss out on Liverpool’s clash against Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday through ‘illness’, which also sidelined him during Jurgen Klopp’s side’s 1-0 over Crystal Palace.
Whether the Brazil intentional is actually ill or just suffering from a ‘transfer niggle’ is only known by those close to the club and player.
Liverpool seem dead-set on keeping their star player, no matter how much money Barca throw at them and, to be fair, it’s pretty fun seeing the Spanish club get told ‘no’ for once.
“We wish to offer clarity as regards our position on a possible transfer of Philippe Coutinho,” Liverpool said in a statement earlier in August.
“The club’s definitive stance is that no offers for Philippe will be considered and he will remain a member of Liverpool Football Club when the summer window closes.”