Liverpool demanded €200m for Coutinho

Liverpool demanded €200 million for Philippe Coutinho when Barcelona made a deadline day bid to sign the Brazil forward, according to director Albert Soler.

Barca made Coutinho one of their top targets after Paris Saint-Germain triggered Neymar's €222m release clause to prise the forward away from the Catalan giants.

But Liverpool rejected a series of bids despite Coutinho reportedly making a transfer request in order to force through a move to Camp Nou.

Coutinho has not played for Liverpool all season due to injury and illness, but he came off the bench and scored in Brazil's World Cup qualifying win over Ecuador on Thursday.

"After weeks of negotiations, yesterday Liverpool asked us for €200m for the player," Soler told a news conference on Saturday. "We will not put the club at risk.

Barcelona technical director Robert Fernandez claimed Coutinho made a "big effort" to try to engineer a switch to Camp Nou.

"We thank the player, he made a big effort to come here and showed that he wanted to play for us, but the situation ended the way it did and there was nothing else we could do."

UCJ, UNILORIN.