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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Jake Polden

Leaked email showed Liverpool's true thoughts on Philippe Coutinho and anger at situation

Back in 2017 Barcelona made it their mission to sign Philippe Coutinho.

The Catalan giants saw the Brazilian as the man to fill the shoes of the departing Andres Iniesta, and set about enticing him to Spain.

Barcelona made a total of three bids for Coutinho that summer with Liverpool firmly standing their ground and rebuking the club's approach.

German newspaper Der Spiegel published correspondence between the two clubs at the time, with leaked emails revealing finer details of the deal.

According to the leak, emails showed that Barcelona made a first offer of around £72million for Coutinho, which was rejected on July 20, 2017.

Barcelona made it their mission to sign Philippe Coutinho in 2017 (Alejandro Garcia/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Liverpool also responded with the note that Coutinho was "not for sale at any price".

Barcelona decided to ignore the advice, and returned in early August with an improved offer of £90m for the Brazilian.

This, according to the email leak, was met with a warning from the Reds' sporting director Michael Edwards, who wrote: "I ask you amicably to stop harassing Coutinho publicly and privately.

Jurgen Klopp was keen to keep hold of the Brazilian (UEFA via Getty Images)

"No amount of money will change our minds."

But Barcelona returned with one final bid of £114m, which was again rejected.

Barcelona eventually took the warning on board and backed away, with Coutinho starting the 2017/18 campaign at Liverpool.

But the Catalan giants were only biding their time, and rekindled their interest in Coutinho in the January transfer window.

Coutinho eventually joined Barcelona in 2018 (X01398)

By this time the Brazilian had well and truly had his head turned by the flurry of bids from Barcelona, and wanted to move.

Coutinho handed in a transfer request in a bid to speed up the process, and Liverpool finally entered talks with the Camp Nou club.

A transfer fee of £142million was eventually agreed upon by the two clubs and Coutinho said goodbye to Merseyside and departed for Spain.

Did Coutinho make the right decision leaving Liverpool? Have your say here.

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