After more than a month of radio silence, Philippe Coutinho to Arsenal is back in the ‘news’ again but is it all that it seems?

With Raul Sanllehi’s departure from Arsenal and Ronald Koeman’s arrival at Barcelona, it seemed like all talk of Arsenal signing the former Liverpool forward had died a death from which it would never recover.

Silly me.

Sport in Spain are now reporting that Arsenal are ‘not giving’ up on the player despite the fact Koeman has said he wants to keep him.

Things, however, may not be what they seem at first glance.

I came across this story on the Mirror’s website and they said they got it from Sport in Span, as I linked above. But when you look at the Sport link you clearly see they claim they got the story from the English press,something the Mirror omitted to mention when they wrote, “And despite Koeman’s stance on Coutinho, Sport report that Arsenal are not giving up the race.”

What do Sport actual say about Arsenal’s interest in Philippe Coutinho?

You don’t even need to read the article to know they got their information from the English media as that’s what they say in their headline: “Reports in England insist Arsenal remain interested in Barça’s Coutinho.”

When you read on you see they claim ‘various reports’ without specifying any. Usually, when we do that, the news is so widespread as to be general knowledge.

This has not been the case in the English media with this story.

Sport write, “Arsenal remain interested in signing Barcelona playmaker Philippe Coutinho, according to various reports in England.

“Coutinho’s first spell at Barcelona was complicated. The 160 million euros spent on him weighed him down and he didn’t deliver as he had done at Liverpool.

“However, new coach Koeman is prepared to give him a second chance after a decent spell at Bayern. He even scored twice in the German side’s 8-2 win over Barça.

“Despite that, Arsenal feel Barça’s financial problems means they will be prepared to listen to offers for a number of players in their squad and may even accept another loan.

“Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has already brought in Willian, Gabriel Magalhaes and Dani Ceballos this summer but is still keen to bolster his squad.”

The Mirror turn this into, “Arsenal have been looking at signing Philippe Coutinho over the transfer window with Mikel Arteta keen on the Barcelona star after his loan spell at Bayern Munich last season.”

And, “Mikel Arteta is a big fan of the mercurial star and wanted to sign him to bring some creativity into the squad.”

Nothing of the sort is in the Sport piece