Charles Watts, who reports on Arsenal for Goal, recently posted a Q&A video on his YouTube channel, where the journalist spent some time talking about the possibility of Philippe Coutinho moving to the Emirates.
Coutinho is currently on loan at Bayern Munich from Barcelona and the 28-year-old Brazilian is set to remain at the Bavarian club until the end of August, with the reigning Bundesliga champions set to compete in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday.
As per ESPN, the £50.4m-rated man’s parent club, Barcelona, ‘want to sell’ him, however, Bayern have opted not to take up their option to buy the Brazilian.
He has been linked with a host of Premier League clubs this summer, one being Arsenal.
During this recent YouTube video, Watts spent some time talking about the possibility of the Gunners signing Coutinho.
This is what the journalist had to say about that potential deal: “In terms of Coutinho, I’ve said it before, I know there’s an awful lot of noise about Coutinho and Arsenal – what people that I’ve spoken to at Arsenal [have told me] and [from] the noises coming out of the club – they’re very, very adamant that Coutinho will not be signing for Arsenal this summer.
“We’ll have to wait and see, there [were] noises coming out of Arsenal last summer that Nicolas Pepe wasn’t going to sign for Arsenal – he did, despite what people were telling us.
“So, we’ll have to wait and see if something similar happens with Coutinho. The fact that Kia Joorabchian is his agent makes me think it’s impossible to completely write it off.”
Would Coutinho be a good signing for Arsenal?
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So, while the journalist didn’t completely rule out the possibility that this deal could happen, it appears as though the Gunners are not actively pursuing the former Liverpool man’s signature.
While Coutinho’s time at Barcelona has been described as a ‘disaster’, the 28-year-old earned the seventh-highest overall rating (7.22/10) of any Bayern player for the 2019/20 Bundesliga campaign, according to WhoScored.
That same overall rating, if earned whilst playing for Arsenal in the Premier League during the 2019/20 season, would have made Coutinho the Gunners’ highest-rated player in the league.
With that in mind, we believe that the Brazilian does still appear to possess plenty of quality and he might not be a bad addition to Arsenal’s squad if they can agree a deal with Barcelona.