Philippe Coutinho has been subject to a return to the Premier League & England for about a year now, with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool previously linked with a move to bring the Brazilian back to where he dazzled.
Coutinho joined Barcelona during the winter transfer window in 2018, for a club-record fee that’s worth €160million, making him the world’s second most expensive player. He is known to be an archetypical Brazilian number 10 advanced playmaker, who can seamlessly operate as an attacking midfielder, second striker, central midfielder and could as well play from the wings (especially cutting in from the left side), where he could curl in a long-range shot, which has to be his trademark goal.
Upon joining the La Liga giant, he took no time to settle down and established himself as a key performer in a season that culminated with Barcelona being crowned the league champions and also won the Copa del Rey. Coutinho accomplished his best professional season in terms of goal contributions in that same period by scoring 22 goals and providing 14 assists in 42 games played for both Liverpool and Barcelona in the same campaign.
Unfortunately, his best form couldn’t be replicated in the following season, his drop in form led to a poor run of games, and his inability to reclaim a starting berth resulted in a loan move away from Camp Nou and joined Bundesliga side Bayern Munich on a season-long loan deal ahead of 2019/2020 season. An option to make his loan move permanent after a season of satisfaction with the Bundesliga side was inserted in the contract but his continued inability to prove his consistency on a regular basis conjoined with his high wage demand led to the club refusing to make his loan deal permanent.
Since his return to Catalonia last summer, following his failed loan with the German champions, featured regularly with Ronald Koeman keen to make most of his pedigree. Though he went down with an injury in December and is yet to feature for the club.
However, you could argue, performances of Barcelona in Coutinho’s absence suggest he’d still be on the bench had he recovered. There also is financial pressure on Barcelona at the moment which could force Coutinho’s sale in the upcoming summer transfer window.
EVERTON & ANCELOTTI IN RUN
Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool were said to be testing waters over bringing the Brazilian back to Premier League. But Everton, who brought in James Rodriguez last summer, owing to the magnet Carlo brings with him – are willing to make Barcelona an offer of around €40million to bring Coutinho to Goodinson.
Everton and Barcelona have done plenty of business together with the Merseyside based club bringing in the likes of Lucas Digne, Andre Gomes, and Yerry Mina from the Blaugrana in recent years.
Joining Everton could mean problems for Coutinho, having played for arch-rivals Liverpool. But if Everton pulls this one-off, it will be a massive coup for Ancelotti, who will then boast creativity prowess with the likes of James Rodriguez and Philippe Coutinho at his disposal.
