Everton are the ‘most interested’ of the Premier League clubs eyeing up the signing of Philippe Coutinho – that’s according to Bleacher Report.
The 28-year-old Brazilian has spent the 2019/20 campaign on loan with the Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich from Barcelona. The Catalan club paid a whopping £130.5m to prise the attacking midfielder away from Liverpool in January 2018 but their decision to loan him out suggests they haven’t been overly impressed by what they’ve seen from him at the Camp Nou.
Despite the Bavarians having an option to buy the player, the club’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed approximately two months ago that they would not be signing the former Inter man and that he will be returning to Spain at the end of the season.
As per Bleacher Report, a number of Premier League clubs have been linked but they claim sources from both Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have said ‘nothing will happen’, leaving the Toffees in the driving seat.
TIF Thoughts…
Coutinho famously represented the club’s local rivals Liverpool between January 2013 and January 2018. He played over 200 times for the Reds, scoring 54 goals and providing 45 assists (via Transfermarkt.co.uk). During this season, Coutinho has appeared for Bayern Munich on 33 occasions, contributing nine goals and eight assists.
Would you like to see Everton break the bank to land Coutinho?
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His average performance rating in the Bundesliga currently stands at 7.22/10 (via WhoScored.com) which we believe to be highly-respectable, however, given that he has only been selected to start in 45% of their league fixtures we can understand why the German club are not willing to invest in his services.
According to Transfermarkt.co.uk, he is valued at £50.4m. If Everton can agree a fee with the La Liga giants, we believe he would be a significant upgrade on Gylfi Sigurdsson or Anthony Gordon who are Carlo Ancelotti’s only recognised attacking midfielders at the moment.