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Arsenal have made offer for 28-year-old South American star, deal could cost £18m

By on July 28, 2020

philippe coutinho

According to Sport, Arsenal have put forward an offer for Philippe Coutinho and the Barcelona attacker is considering the proposal ahead of a potential £18m loan deal.

Mikel Arteta has made no secret of his desire to strengthen his squad this summer following a disastrous campaign that saw us finish 8th in the Premier League and we’re in danger of missing out on European football for the first time in 25 years.

We can salvage that record if we beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday as it would secure a place in the group stages of the Europa League and victory at Wembley will no doubt have a huge impact on our transfer plans this summer.

Arteta needs to add some creativity to the team and Coutinho has been strongly linked with a move to Arsenal in recent weeks. It looks like we’ve now formalised our interest as Sport says Arsenal have an offer on the table and the playmaker is desperate to return to England.

The Spanish outlet says Coutinho initially rejected our proposal, presumably as he thought we couldn’t offer European football, but the player has now asked for more time to consider Arsenal’s offer before he makes a final decision.

My guess is Coutinho wants to wait until after the FA Cup final to see if Arsenal will be playing in the Europa League or not but he does have other interest as Sport claims Tottenham and Leicester are also vying for his signature.

The report says Arteta ‘loves’ Coutinho and is keen to have him in his ranks for next season but Barcelona want around £18m [€20m] to have him on loan for a year and we’d have to cover his hefty salary, so any deal won’t come cheap.

Coutinho’s agent is Kia Joorabchian and he’s grown close with the likes of Edu and Raul Sanllehi recently having brokered deals for Cedric Soares and David Luiz while another of his clients, Willian, is also being linked with Arsenal.

So I think if we can secure European football by winning the FA Cup, then we have a good chance of signing Coutinho and persuading him to come to the Emirates Stadium for at least a season.

The 28-year-old’s career has stalled since he joined Barcelona from Liverpool but I don’t think there is any doubting his quality. We saw during his time at Anfield how good a player he is and I personally think he’d be a superb signing for Arsenal.

We desperately need some creativity and guile in the final third and Coutinho is a terrific playmaker on his day. He knows the league already and is in his peak years so for me this deal would be a no-brainer if we could pull it off.