Barcelona pay Philippe Coutinho, Balance the truth about millions 'owed' to Liverpool

Liverpool have been paid all of the money owed for Philippe Coutinho despite reports

It's heading towards five years since Philippe Coutinho swapped Anfield for the Nou Camp.

In January of 2018, Barcelona made Liverpool an offer that they couldn't refuse for the Brazilian playmaker as they parted company with a whopping £142m to secure his services.

That deal has long been viewed as transformative for Liverpool and destructive for Barcelona, with the Reds re-investing a considerable chunk of their windfall back into the squad with the additions of players such as Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker, two players who have been core to Liverpool's successes over the past four years.

Barcelona, on the other hand, have had to rebuild after the pandemic exposed their financial folly in the transfer market, with major signings such as Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann failing to deliver for the Catalan club.

Coutinho inked a permanent deal with Aston Villa ahead of the current season having spent the latter part of the 2021/22 campaign on loan at Villa Park, the price tag for the 30-year-old standing at a reported £17m, a fee that was just 12 per cent of what Barca paid to lure him to the Nou Camp initially.

Claims over Barcelona continuing to owe clubs money for transfers have been made for some time now, with deals for the likes of Miralem Pjanic, Frenkie de Jong and Sergino Dest all still seeing the La Liga giants owe money to the respective clubs they acquired the players from. A total of £125.8m (€144m) remains outstanding according to reports to emerge in Spain, via SportBible and others, in recent days.