There has been a lot of Philippe Coutinho chatter in the past few days; about why he didn’t end up joining Tottenham last summer and the possibility of him move to North London next season, whenever that is.
A report from Sport in Spain via Sport Witness – claimed that Coutinho had agreed to come to Spurs and was frustrated when the loan fell through when Daniel Levy tried to lowball Barcelona on costs at the last minute.
However, Coutinho’s agent Kia Joorabchian has saved Levy’s bacon, describing those rumours as “totally false” by telling The Mirror: “Philippe Coutinho has no personal issue with Daniel Levy and claims otherwise are totally false. The deal did not collapse due to financial reasons.”
Instead, The Mirror understands that Levy was prepared to finance a deal for the 27-year-old Brazilian but Mauricio Pochettino vetoed his arrival as he was concerned that a big name would upset his dressing room spirit.
As it turned out, he didn’t need a big name to do that, and having a world-class playmaker around could have saved him his job when Christian Eriksen dropped anchor.
Coutinho later joined Bayern Munich but The Mirror understands we might get another chance to sign the ex-Liverpool star, as the German giants don’t want to sign him permanently, and Barca are prepared to loan him again.
And this time Pochettino won’t be around to play party-pooper.