Tottenham were in talks with Barcelona over signing Philippe Coutinho on a season-long loan + buying option this summer, but the deal fell through due to his lofty asking price and wage demands. According to Gareth Bicknell of the Mirror, Barca requested £30m to loan the 27-year-old while Coutinho requested nearly £1m-a-month to join Spurs.
The Brazilian international played under Mauricio Pochettino while at Espanyol (2011/12) and made 16 appearances in all competitions, scoring and creating six goals. Pochettino was believed to have contacted Coutinho by phone to convince him to join Tottenham, but agent Kia Joorabchian believes he would have struggled to play for a Premier League side that wasn’t former club Liverpool.
Given how desperate Barcelona are to offload the forward, Coutinho would be left with little option but to seek opportunities elsewhere. He joined the Liga giants from Liverpool in January 2018 and has gone on to score and create 32 goals in 76 games, but he came under a lot of criticism for poor form in the last 12 months.
The 27-year-old scored just five goals in 34 Liga games, netting just once between November 2018 and May 2019. He managed only two Liga assists in 2018/19 too. Tottenham could have benefitted from another forward in the squad, but they may have dodged a bullet not getting Coutinho.