Report: FC Barcelona wants to sell former Bayern Munich loanee Philippe Coutinho

Per a new report from Catalan based newspaper “Ara” (via SportBild), FC Barcelona is ready to sell former Bayern Munich loanee Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian helped Bayern win the treble is his season-long loan spell in Munich.

Despite making a bright start to the 2020/2021 campaign under new manager Ronald Koeman, the current financial problems at Barcelona means that they’re going to have to do a lot of renegotiating of salaries for players and employees at the club. As a byproduct, it’s already been decided by the club’s front office to sell Coutinho as early as the winter transfer window.

Of course, Barcelona also had to pay Liverpool a bonus fee of €5 million since he won the Champions League title with Bayern, just under two years after moving from Anfield to the Catalans for €120 million. Additionally, Bayern had made it clear even before the Champions League tournament in Portugal that they did not want to activate the buyout clause in Coutinho’s loan deal, which meant that Barcelona would have to continue paying his high wages.

The Brazilian has scored three goals and has provided two assists in a total of eleven appearances across all competitions, but he might not have much more time to add to those numbers if he’s offloaded this winter. His agent, Kia Joorabchain still feels that there’s hope for Coutinho at Barcelona, though.

“We have no intention of leaving Barça. We are convinced that Coutinho can do his part to ensure a successful season,” Joorachian had recently told Spanish outlet, Marca.

This contradicts the general consensus within Barcelona’s front office amidst their financial crisis.

It’s highly unlikely that Bayern would be interested in bringing “the little magician” back to Munich because he’s price would probably be too high, especially during the winter transfer window. However, given Barcelona’s current financial troubles, they might be willing to let him go for cheaper than they would otherwise plan for. It’s been previously reported that Juventus was keeping tabs on him.