Barça look to sell Coutinho and Rakitic to fund a striker
According to Catalunya Ràdio, the Camp Nou board are looking to cash in on the Brazilian and Croatian as they comb the market for a Luis Suárez replacement.
Barcelona are desperately searching for the means to fund a new striker before the January window closes with Luis Suárez ruled out until at least April and Quique Setién lacking another number nine in his squad for the second half of the season.
One of the ideas the technical department at Camp Nou have come up with is to try and find a buyer for Philippe Coutinho, who is currently on a season-long at Bayern Munich. It seems unlikely that Bayern will exercise their purchase option for the Brazilian in the summer, with the fee set at 120 million euros, and the Bundesliga side are apparently happy to bow to Barça’s wishes if a sale can be pushed through in the next few days.
Rakitic to Juventus or Inter?
Barça are also keen to offload Ivan Rakitic this month, with interest in the Croatia midfielder from both the Premier League and Serie A. Inter and Juventus are the most likely clubs to bite should Rakitic be dangled in front of them but Barça will look for a decent fee for the 31-year-old, whose contract runs until 2021.
Barça have already pocketed 13 million euros from the sale of Carles Pérez to Roma and could also look to offload Barça B and Spain under-21 international forward Abel Ruiz, who has been linked with a move to Sporting Braga.