Former Everton striker Marcus Bent is not too convinced about his old side moving for Barcelona attacker Philippe Coutinho and believes they would have to offload some players before bringing him in.
Coutinho’s Barcelona career looks all but over, with the £27m-rated 29-year-old left out of Ronald Koeman’s first matchday squad of the season.
Prior, the Liverpool Echo had reported that a move for Coutinho could not be completely ruled out, though he is not a player Everton are actively pursuing.
Do Everton need to stay away from Coutinho?
Yes
No, sign him
Ultimately, for Bent, it is a transfer that would come with a lot of question marks and one that is probably going to cost too much money. He said to TIF:
“Is he going to change this Everton side? You know, the money to bring him in, is he going to change it? I don’t think so.
“And I think we would need to offload before we bring in someone like him.”
Having already signed Andros Townsend and Demarai Gray during this transfer window, it will be interesting to see if Rafael Benitez does move for another attacker.
If the Merseyside club end up offloading James Rodriguez before the end of August, then perhaps they may look to recruit someone like Coutinho.