Chelsea have held talks with Barcelona over a deal for former Liverpool playmaker Philippe Coutinho.
The Brazilian is coming to the end of a two-year loan spell at Bayern Munich and the Bundesliga giants have made clear that they will not activate a clause to buy the Brazilian permanently.
Tottenham showed interest in the Brazilian last summer as Barcelona looked to cash in on the midfielder in order to fund a move for Antoine Griezmann.
Barcelona signed Coutinho for an initial fee of £110m in 2018 and Liverpool were due a further £32m in add-ons.
However, he managed just one full season at the Camp Nou before joining Bayern and Barcelona are willing to accept a far lower fee to get him off the books this summer.
According to Sport, Chelsea have already contacted Coutinho’s representatives and have held talks with Barcelona over a loan deal for the Brazilian.
The deal would be similar to the one that Bayern have in place, meaning Chelsea would cover Coutinho’s wages and they would commit to a season-by-season fee.
It’s believed that Barcelona charged Bayern a fee of around £15m per season to loan Coutinho and Chelsea would be willing to meet that.
Chelsea could face competition from Serie A giants Inter Milan, Coutinho’s former club.
But it’s believed that the Brazilian would like to return to the Premier League and it’s claimed that the suspension of league seasons across Europe due to the coronavirus outbreak has allowed Chelsea and Barcelona to ramp up negotiations. MORE: Man Utd blow Borussia Dortmund out of the water with mammoth Jude Bellingham contract offer
Source: Metro
