Barcelona prepare January Coutinho bid

The Catalan giants pursued Coutinho throughout the summer but Liverpool played hard-ball and refused to sell their star-man, despite his transfer request, as they rejected three offers over the course of the window.

Liverpool slapped a price tag of €200m on their Brazilian playmaker and Barcelona refused to meet that price.

However, according to Spanish publication 'Mundo Deportivo', Ernesto Valverde will return with a new bid for the 25-year-old.

On the front page of the Spanish newspaper on Wednesday, it was reported that Barca are weighing up an offer worth €80m with an extra €30m in add-ons, which would add up to around £97m in total.

'Coutinho 80 [million fixed] + 30 [million later]'

Front cover of @mundodeportivo pic.twitter.com/ocCss6NFEU

— Penya FCB de Beirut (@PenyaFCBBeirut) October 3, 2017

The Brazilian star had a fractious summer because of the transfer speculation and was left out of the Liverpool squad at the start of the season due to injury. However, after recovering from injury and having a meeting with manager Jurgen Klopp, he has put the transfer saga behind him and returned to the starting XI, proving his value for the Reds with three goals in his last three matches.

Barcelona have started the season in dazzling form, but are still keen to bring in the man they coveted throughout the summer during the next transfer window, especially with the long-term injury of record signing Ousmane Dembele.

The proposed bid of an initial €80m still falls well under Liverpool's valuation of the player, a number which may well even increase if he carries on his early season form, but it is thought that Coutinho could try and force through a move once the transfer window reopens.