Assessing a more sensational Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumour

El National has theorized that Philippe Coutinho is potentially available for Tottenham on a free transfer, as the Catalan giants attempt to ease their financial woes. 

The Brazilian has turned into an unmitigated disaster at Barcelona. The Spanish giants paid an outlandish £145 million to secure his services in 2018 and now want to dump him like a bin bag full of odious waste.

While it most likely wouldn’t cost Spurs much — if anything at all — in terms of a transfer fee, the elephant in the room, not unlike when Gareth Bale returned to north London, is the Brazilian’s astronomical £370,000-a-week wages. Unlike the loan deal that saw Bale return to north London, Barcelona isn’t as amenable to helping with the weekly bill. Which will leave any would-be suitor in a bit of a financial pickle.

However, Spurs would leverage the absence of a transfer fee  to meet the ginormous financial demands of his weekly salary. Even then, his exorbitant salary will act as a massive deterrent for Tottenham, who won’t see enough of an upside to fork out such absurd money on a player whose career has taken a nosedive since his Liverpool glory days.

He has the skill to rejuvenate his sputtering career, but for Tottenham it’s not worth the financial risk. The only way this deal makes sense is if Barcelona takes Real Madrid’s lead, provides Coutinho on loan and decides to pay half of his swollen salary. At this stage it doesn’t look like that’s a likely outcome, which will scupper the likelihood of this deal eventuating.

If Barcelona does take Madrid’s lead, this prospective deal would become all the more appealing to Spurs, who wouldn’t be opposed to providing a player of such otherworldly raw talent a platform for redemption.