Spanish paper Sport are always closely following Barcelona’s transfer news, given they are a Catalan paper closely linked to the club.
They aren’t always right, or even nearly right, but they are well connected enough in the city to pay attention to.
This piece today highlights Philippe Coutinho’s options as Barcelona look to shift the former Liverpool man. They name Chelsea (transfer ban presumed frozen in this case), and Manchester United his top suitors, but they say PSG are in pole position.
We’ve heard this all before in the last couple of days, but they mention some specifics here which interest us. They say that the reason the Brazilian isn’t thinking about a move to the Bridge is because of the “salarial implications”, I.E. the pay cut he would have to take to come to us.
It’s not often Chelsea are presented as the paupers who can’t afford the top players, but in this particular situation, with the eye watering contract Coutinho presumably has in Barca and the more favourable tax situation for footballers in Spain, this seems a very convincing argument against this move happening.
