While Chelsea have been leading the Philippe Coutinho rumour-race, there are other clubs in the running as well.
Leicester City have been rumored to be interested in the midfielder’s services, and now it appears that Chelsea’s sworn-enemies cross-town rivals, Tottenham Hotspurs too have joined the fray, as per a report from the Mirror.
Tottenham to rival Chelsea in transfer pursuit of Barcelona's Philippe Coutinhohttps://t.co/zvxkqHG8bW pic.twitter.com/UVGe4Ctdck
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) April 9, 2020
Spurs’ interest in the 27-year-old is nothing new. Last summer, they had made an unsuccessful attempt to land him to replace want-away Christian Eriksen. Erikson’s now gone, but with a replacement still not signed, Spurs’ interest makes a lot of sense.
From a Barcelona perspective, they want to offload Coutinho permanently and therefore want to include a mandatory buy-option in any loan deal. They don’t want someone else to “pull a Bayern Munich”, where Coutinho is taken in order to temporarily fix a position of need, before being returned with one year less on his Blaugrana contract.
Tottenham are apparently willing to agree to that provision, unlike Chelsea who want any buy-option to be actually optional.
- The stadium-induced fears over no income
— Charlie Eccleshare (@CDEccleshare) April 10, 2020
- The dissenting voices
- The player frustration
A look at why #THFC furloughed staff and what comes next. https://t.co/y34BhThC0J
While that does put Spurs at an advantage, their finances have been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and they became the second Premier League team to furlough their non-playing staff this week, and have not reversed course like Liverpool despite the public pressure.
Other than Tottenham, PSG have also been mooted as a possible future destination for Philippe Coutinho, perhaps as part of a deal that could see Neymar return to Barcelona, a club in sudden and absolute disarray.
Barcelona in crisis as six directors resign citing the way club is being run | @sidlowe https://t.co/LAt3tR1lF1
— Guardian sport (@guardian_sport) April 10, 2020