Liverpool asked for €200 million for Coutinho
Soler revealed that Liverpool named their price at the last minute
The club were not prepared to pay the fee
Barça ended the transfer window yesterday without signing Coutinho, despite trying until the end. The two clubs could not agree a fee: "Yesterday at the last minute named their price for a player we were interested in. A price of €200 million. Logically, we decided not to go ahead. And that's an indication of the new model. What we won't do it put the club at risk: football is not about clubs any more, it's about investors," Soler explained.
Barça asked Liverpool to name their price because they thought Liverpool were just dragging their feet. The €200 million price tag, however, made it clear that Liverpool had no intention of selling the player. That is the club's story anyway.
Today, they tried to justify the disappointing end to the transfer window. Soler explained that there were aspects of the situation they couldn't control but "logically you can do everything better and there should always be some self-criticism. Based on that, we adapt to a situation. With people who know we had money and a football situation we weren't contemplating after the departure of Neymar".
Soler explained that they had to consider the club's long-term health, "the rules have changed but we didn't want to risk the club's viability and assets. If we sign two players for €270 million then we would definitely have crossed that red line":
