Barcelona’s desperation to sell Philippe Coutinho this summer could see the Brazilian move to the Emirates for less than the fee Arsenal paid for Nicolas Pepe, reports the Mirror.
Arsenal has become one of the teams with the strongest interest in rescuing Coutinho from his Barcelona nightmare.
The Mirror is also claiming that Arsenal will be contacting his agent as Mikel Arteta has requested that the club try and land the former Liverpool man.
This would be delightful news to Barcelona as they are desperate to get him off their books and create space for their summer business.
The Catalans landed Coutinho for around £140 million in the winter of 2018 after the Brazilian forced Liverpool to sell him.
However, his value has since dropped and the report claims that he could now join the Gunners for half that price.
Arsenal signed Nicolas Pepe for £72 million in the summer, so if Coutinho joins for £70 million, he would have cost Arsenal less than they paid for the struggling Ivorian.
Coutinho had his best spell as a footballer in the Premier League when he turned out for Liverpool. He was enjoying his best goal-scoring spell at the club before he left them to join Barcelona, and Arteta would be hoping that he can get him back to that sort of form.
