Goodbye Philippe Coutinho, hello Robert Lewandowski!

Goodbye Philippe Coutinho, hello Robert Lewandowski!

Lluís Mascaró

Director de Información Deportiva de Prensa Ibérica

| Jordi Cotrina

Selling Coutinho for 20 million euros is good business. And more when you count the 23m saved on wages. The bad business was signing him for 160 million, a record transfer fee. His trajectory is the chronicle of a predictable failure. Bringing him in as the ‘new Iniesta’ was an absurdity that has proven very expensive. The Brazilian never adapted to the team’s game. And looked like a lost soul in pain on the pitch. An easy target for angry fans who whistled him many times. 

Four years after signing him in the winter market of January 2018, his departure is the sad culmination of the shocking management of Bartomeu and his board, and the misuse of 222m they earned for Neymar. Coutinho (25 goals in 106 games and a season and a half on loan at Bayern and Villa), Griezmann (35 goals in 102 games and a season on loan at Atleti) and Dembele (32 goals in 148 games and 13 injuries) have not justified the 400m spent on them. Coutinho has signed for Villa, Griezmann will stay at Atletico and Dembele could still leave on a free. A disaster trilogy.

LEWANDOWSKI CLOSER

The Polish striker’s deal is heating up. Barcelona have an agreement with him and they are pressing to sign him for 35-40m euros. The Bavarians have accepted that he will leave. Negotiations will not be easy but Lewandowski’s will should be decisive. 

Signing him is a sure bet. The striker has scored 40 goals a season for seven years in a row, averaging 45.4, and his performance, despite being about to turn 34, is assured for at least a couple more campaigns. With no Haaland, impossible financially, Lewandowski is a good next bet. Good, no. Very good.

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