Barcelona rumors: Huge Coutinho bid imminent, shirt number chosen & Umtiti meets with Manchester City

Coutinho very, very, very close

Today’s rumors are being hogged by one man, yep you’ve guessed it, Philippe Coutinho is dominating all the headlines with a move believed to be close.

At Sport, the headline is that Barcelona are “very, very, very close” to a move and claim a deal will be agreed in the coming days.

The two teams will meet on Wednesday to finalise the deal with Coutinho set to sign a five-year deal worth €150 million including variables.

Liverpool now open to sale

Over at Mundo Deportivo the story is pretty much the same, although not quite as excitable as Sport.

They claim Coutinho will not play in Liverpool’s FA Cup clash with Everton on Friday and that Liverpool will now be willing to accept a deal.

The Reds’ stance is believed to have softened considerably since the summer and the deal will be €110m plus €40m in variables.

Liverpool open to “every eventuality”

AS, meanwhile, are hedging their bets and reckon that with regards to Coutinho, prettty much anything could still happen.

They could sell in January, or agree a deal for a summer transfer as they have accepted he will leave.

Apparently Josep Maria Bartomeu feels he has a “moral obligation” to sign Coutinho after the effort he has put into forcing a transfer, and both Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez want him at the club.

Coutinho chooses shirt number

And today’s final Coutinho update is that he has already decided which shirt number he wants to wear should he complete his move to Camp Nou.

Apparently the Brazilian fancies the No.7, which currently belongs to a certain Mr Arda Turan, although he is expected to depart in January.

However, this news is brought to you directly from Don Balon, so make of that what you will.

Umtiti meets with Manchester City

Last but definitely not least, is the rather concerning news from L’Equipe that Samuel Umtiti has met with Manchester City.

According to the French newspaper, Pep Guardiola’s side “presented their project” to the defender.

However, with this one it’s worth taking at look at Sport Witness and their Twitter feed as they seem have a pretty good idea of what’s going on with this one.