With the top European-based players meeting up with their national sides this week for the final international break of the year, many newspapers are using the opportunity to churn out a bit of transfer gossip.
Not for the first time, Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho finds himself on the front page of Catalonia’s imaginatively named sport-themed paper, SPORT, which claims that the Brazilian will be Barcelona’s top priority in next summer’s transfer window.
The report notes Coutinho’s close relationship with international teammate Neymar and go so far as to say that the Liverpool number ten possesses Barca DNA, whatever that means.
Coutinho has been in superb form for his club so far this season, and is a major part of why Jurgen Klopp’s side top of the table at this moment in time.
As well as his eye-catching club performances, he also helped Brazil beat Argentina in Belo Horizonte overnight, scoring a stunning opener in the World Cup qualifier.
Of course, if Barca *do* end up getting him, it wouldn’t be the first time in recent years that the Spanish champions have managed to prise away one of Liverpool’s key players. In 2014 they signed Luis Suarez from the Anfield club – the Uruguayan helping them to a treble in his first season at the Camp Nou.
For now though, the 24-year-old remains very much a Liverpool player. If he can help steer them to a first league title since 1990, Barca’s interest may not be enough to tempt him away from Merseyside.
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