Daniel Levy was not responsible for the collapse of Philippe Coutinho’s move to Tottenham last summer, according to the player’s agent – in fact, the Mirror reports Mauricio Pochettino made the final decision to cancel the deal.
Last week we relayed a story from Spanish outlet Sport (via Sport Witness) that claimed Coutinho was left outraged when Levy tried to change the financial terms of the deal at the last minute. The Brazilian was said to be heading to Spurs on loan but eventually joined Bayern Munich instead.
However, Coutinho’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, has now revealed Levy did not have anything to do with the move falling through. He told the Mirror: “Philippe Coutinho has no personal issue with Daniel Levy and claims otherwise are totally false. The deal did not collapse due to financial reasons.”
The Mirror’s story goes on to claim it was actually Pochettino who decided against the Coutinho swoop in the end.
Tottenham ended up signing Giovani Lo Celso on loan just before the deadline, so perhaps Pochettino was keen to get that deal done and felt adding Coutinho to the squad was unnecessary.
While Lo Celso has been a big hit in north London, Coutinho would have brought plenty of useful quality and a few goals.
[…] recently relayed comments from Coutinho’s agent, Kia Joorabchian, who claimed the midfielder’s proposed move to Spurs last summer did not […]