Barcelona Evidence that Liverpool were right

Barcelona's claims about the potential signing of Liverpool's Phillipe Coutinho have been rubbished thanks to new evidence that has recently come to light.

The Catalans had negotiated with the Brazilian behind the backs of the English club, despite having rejected such accusations when they explained that the deal fell apart because Liverpool demanded an exorbitant fee.

German newspaper 'Der Spiegel' has published documentation via Football Leaks that confirm Liverpool's version of the story, completely rejecting suggestions that they asked for 200 million euros on deadline day, as claimed by Albert Soler.

The Reds had already made it clear that Coutinho was not for sale and emails from July 20 between Oscar Grau, executive director of Barcelona, and Michael Edwards, Liverpool's sporting director, made clear that "he [Coutinho] is not for sale at any price."

In early August, the Blaugrana returned with another offer despite the negative response, offering 90m euros plus another 40m in add-ons.

Edwards could not have been clearer on that occasion.

"I politely request that you stop publicly and privately harassing Coutinho. No amount of money will change our minds," he said in correspondence sent to Grau.

Liverppol accused Barcelona of negotiating with the player in secret but, according to the documents, Grau suggested that this was made up by the Premier League side.

There was, in fact, a 20 page agreement between Coutinho and Barcelona on August 31 and the Brazilian would have earned 115m euros over five years with his agent pocketing 10m if the up-front transfer fee was 100m.

As a result, Liverpool complained and they remain furious with the behaviour of their Spanish counterparts.