Coutinho May Make A Premier League Return, But His Destination Is Not Liverpool: Report

FC Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho reportedly could return to Premier League but his destination won't be his former club Liverpool FC.

Coutinho, who is unlikely to receive enough game time once Xavi takes over Barcelona's charge, could leave Camp Nou during the January transfer window. Barcelona are desperate to get rid of Coutinho's high salary from their wage bracket and Premier League side Newcastle United are interested in securing the Brazilian's services, reported Spanish publication SPORT.

Following the lucrative Saudi takeover, Newcastle have a financial boost ahead of the winter market. The report has also claimed that Barcelona would even accept a loan with obligation to buy but the La Liga giants are clear they want to permanently part ways with Countinho, who joined them during the 2018 January window from Liverpool at a hefty price of $190 million.

This time around, Coutinho's asking price won't be as much, making it further easy for Newcastle to sign the midfielder.

It has also been reported that Newcastle are willing to offer an annual salary of $17 million to Barcelona's injury-prone forward Ousmane Dembele.

Under Koeman's charge, Countinho featured in 11 matches in the 2021-22 campaign but he remained an unused substitute when Sergi Barjuan took charge of the team in Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League.

Even though Barcelona have always appreciated Coutinho's professionalism, they have never been satisfied with his performances on the field. It was one of the reasons why they loaned him off to Bayern Munich during the 2019-20 season. Unfortunately for the Catalans, Countinho ended up winning the Champions League with the German club. In fact, he even scored twice and assisted once for Bayern Munich as they humiliated the player's parent club, Barcelona, 8-2 in the semi-final.

Coutinho returned to Barcelona for the 2020-21 season but a knee injury cut short his campaign, as he managed to make only 14 appearances.

The Brazilian is contracted with Barcelona until 2023 and so far, he has netted 24 goals and 14 assists in 101 appearances for the club, across all competitions.

Barcelona are still trying to land Xavi as their new head coach. The former Camp Nou captain is the current manager of the Qatar-based club Al-Sadd.