Barcelona will test Liverpool’s resolve to keep Philippe Coutinho with an £80million bid.
The Catalan giants will return with an improved offer for the Brazil midfielder after their initial £72m offer was rejected.
Sources in Spain believe this is the opening shot of a battle which could go the distance.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp insists the club will not buckle and sell Coutinho like the club did with Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez.
Klopp - Dortmund boss when Suarez was sold to Barca and Sterling surrendered to Manchester City – said: “With Suarez I was far away.
“When the club sold Sterling I was maybe the last to know about it. So those situations have nothing to do with this one.
“We are approaching a very important moment and we want to get better. For this we have to keep our key players. So that’s the answer.”
Klopp held talks with Coutinho at the Reds team hotel, the Ritz Carlton, last night after the 2-1 win over Leicester in which the Brazilian scored.
Liverpool owners FSG have already decreed they will not negotiate with Barca after their Brazilian superstar signed an
improved five-year deal last season.
improved five-year deal last season.
Klopp added: “I can say 20 times, he is not for sale.
“If you ask the other question the other way and I say, there has been no assurance [from owners FSG], you make the story the other way. There is no story for me."
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