Word from Spain suggests a fee for Philippe Coutinho has been agreed

The January transfer window is open, meaning it’s time for Philippe Coutinho-to-Barcelona rumours to go into overdrive once again.

After knocking back a couple of big money bids from Barca last summer, Liverpool made it quite clear they weren’t in any rush to lose their Brazilian star – even if that meant turning their noses up at a nice, juicy transfer fee.

Although many Liverpool fans are resigned to the fact Coutinho might eventually get his move at the end of the season, speculation suggesting he could leave this month has been building throughout the week.

Nike, Barcelona’s kit suppliers, haven’t exactly helped this. Reports from Brazil have claimed that Liverpool intend to sue the sportswear giant after they appeared to preemptively announce that Coutinho would be finalising a January move to La Liga on their website.

Liverpool faced Burnley at Turf Moor on New Year’s Day, with Coutinho missing the game with a thigh problem. Minutes before the game kicked off, Alfredo Martinez, of Onda Cero Radio, appeared to claim that a fee had been agreed for Coutinho.

‘They tell me that the price of Coutinho is €140m + 40 variables,’ he tweeted. 

Me dicen que el Precio de Coutinho es de 140 M € + 40 variables.

— Alfredo Martínez (@Alfremartinezz) January 1, 2018

As we all know too well, there’s no guarantees that reports from Spain can be trusted, but we can at least be certain that if the move doesn’t happen, there’ll be plenty more claims like this made for the rest of the month.