No Premier League return for Coutinho as English transfer window shuts

Philippe Coutinho is still a Barcelona player following the closing of the transfer window in England. Barça were working on moving him to a Premier League club this week but nothing developed in the end and the window shut on Thursday at 6pm CET. 

Barça are clear that Coutinho has to leave this summer for two reasons. Firstly, because of the wage bill and secondly because they need to bring in money following investment on De Jong and Griezmann this summer, with Neymar also still an option. 

With that in mind, Barça offered him to England's biggest clubs. Arsenal were linked but ruled out and then Tottenham looked a possibility. Mauricio Pochettino even spoke with the Brazilian -- who he coached at Espanyol -- but a deal was unable to be put together. 

With the Premier League ruled out, Baça will not explore other avenues. At the moment, PSG, Juventus and Bayern Munich seem like the only viable options, although it's not been ruled out that he could end up staying at Camp Nou now. 

Coutinho didn't play in Wednesday's win over Napoli but Ernesto Valverde explained it was because he has not trained much since returning from his summer holiday on Sunday.

"Of course I am counting on him," the Barça coach said. "We don't know what's going to happen, but he's with us. He didn't play today because, like Arthur and [Arturo] Vidal, they've only had two training sessions.

"The plan is the same: bring them in little by little. We will see if on Saturday he can play some minutes. The idea is the same with him as everyone else. We count on him, of course."