One of the three years has almost passed
Barcelona cannot sign any Liverpool players without paying a huge additional premium for three years, one of which has almost passed, due to a clause inserted into Philippe Coutinho’s contract with the LaLiga club, according to reports in Spain.
Coutinho joined Barcelona in January this year from Liverpool for a fee of around €140m. Liverpool were well compensated for letting go of their star player but wanted to ensure that Barça did not come sniffing around for another of their stars for the foreseeable future.
To prevent another approach from Barça, Liverpool insisted upon a clause in Coutinho’s contract stating that if Barcelona want to sign any of their players before 2020, Barcelona will have to pay a €100m premium in addition to any transfer fee.
Liverpool are all too familiar with having to sell their stars to Barcelona, having seen Luis Suarez join Barça in 2014 after narrowly missing out on a Premier League title.
Liverpool’s current side includes several players who would improve Barça’s squad, with the standouts being Roberto Firmino and Virgil Van Dijk. But Reds fans can rest assured that they will be free from the pulling power of the Catalan giants for two more years.
And now that they are competing for titles, they will feel more confident of keeping hold of their best players. Last season, they reached the Champions League final, only to be let down by a couple of brain farts from goalkeeper Loris Karius, while Barcelona crashed out in the quarter-finals to Roma, whom Liverpool beat in the semis before signing their goalkeeper, Alisson, in the summer.
