Liverpool and Barcelona agree £142m deal for Philippe Coutinho
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Published 06/01/2018 at 19:11 GMT
Liverpool have finalised a £142m deal with Barcelona for midfielder Philippe Coutinho.
Coutinho Barcelona
Image credit: Eurosport
The story broke on Saturday afternoon and Barcelona confirmed the news later the same day.
An official statement read:
FC Barcelona and Liverpool FC have reached an agreement for the transfer of Philippe Coutinho. The player will sign a contract for the remainder of the season and five more, and will have a buyout clause of 400 million euros.
The move makes the Brazilian the most expensive player to ever move in or out of the Premier League.
Coutinho was heavily linked with a move to the Camp Nou in the summer and Liverpool have finally caved to the pressure, ending the long-running transfer saga.
Liverpool are currently fourth in the Premier League and pushing hard for Champions League qualification, and manager Jurgen Klopp said this week that the rest of the squad would not be affected by the departure of Coutinho:
These young boys are used to this from a really early age and are used to ignoring things around them. If they are smart enough they ignore most of it. If you need somebody from the press to tell you after the game whether you were good or not then already something is wrong.
"All the stories around are no problem," Klopp continued. "This story is not around since yesterday. It has been around since the summer and did you at any moment get the impression this team is distracted because of transfer rumours? No.
“We are focused on what we can have an influence on. All the rest we have to ignore. It is clear there is a lot of excitement around.”
Coutinho's move sees him reunite with former Liverpool team-mate Luis Suarez, who left Anfield for Barcelona in 2014.
The news of Coutinho's move comes just days after Liverpool broke the transfer record for a defender when they bought Virgil van Dijk from Southampton for £75m.
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