Olympique Marseille is serious about beating Arsenal to the signature of Brazilian playmaker, Philippe Coutinho.
The former Liverpool star has been struggling for relevance since he moved to Spain in 2018 and selling him this summer would help Barcelona save some money in wages.
Arsenal has admired him since Mikel Arteta became their manager as the Spaniard looks for an attacking midfielder to build his team around.
He remains a target after they missed out on signing Martin Odegaard on a permanent transfer.
The Gunners will now attempt to get a replacement for the Norwegian who spent the second half of last season on loan with them.
Coutinho can provide the playmaking that Arsenal needs, but they could lose him to Marseille with L’Equipe via Todofichajes reporting that they are so keen on him that they have found a sponsor to help them share the payments regarding his transfer.
The report says talks are now making rapid progress and the midfielder is expected to complete the move to the Ligue 1 side very soon.
If he joins them, it would be a blow to Arsenal unless they aren’t that keen on him because it would show that they remain an unattractive proposition when teams like Marseille beats them to transfer targets.
I would welcome him IF:
1) transfer fee will me minimal (lets say less than £10m). Barca are broke and desperate, so they just need him off the books.
2) he accepts less wages, lets say max. 100-120k a week.
3) lowly signing on fee and short contract (like 3 years).
We are not that desperate for him. Barca is. I mean they just sold Carles Alena for measly £4m!
Not another one that we may lose out on,why don’t bring back Arron Ramsey,he’s said that will take a cut in wages, Arsenal have said that since he left on a free he will have to come back on a free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!⚽⚽⚽⚽⚽🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🥅🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Paul I assume you inhabit a different and emojis ridden planet than me. I have not a clue what all those silly signs mean, if anything.
Pretty simple John I see footballs, nets, trophies, medals, crowns and hearts.. I hope this clears up the confusion
Jon i would have thought that you knew that sometimes words are not needed nor necessary don’t tell me that you never used a look a smirk a grin a shake of the head facial expressions…..well emojis are the equivalents nothing dumb silly about them actually when you know their meaning you’d find that they are straight to the point concise…and contrary to what you may think very easy to understand and helpful in expressing feelings/sentiments at a particular moment there is a reason why they are so popular!
Did anybody from the Arsenal transfer team name Coutihno as a transfer?
👍 Arsenal losing out on a player, they were never in for again!
He hasn’t done much of note since he left Liverpool, so good miss for us. Wages too high, little love for Arsenal, so a hard pass.
Last thing we need is another high paid Brazilian past their best. Whether I’m talking about Willian, Coutinho, or Edu, I’ll leave that up to you the reader.
NICE ONE