Philippe Coutinho will stay at Anfield because 'Liverpool don't need the money' says Comolli

Former director of football at Liverpool Damien Comolli believes Philippe Coutinho will not move to Barcelona for a world record fee as the club do not need the money.

Coutinho has been linked with a move to the Catalans of late as a potential Neymar replacement, with the former Inter player having handed in a transfer request earlier in August to help facilitate the move.

However, manager Jurgen Klopp and the rest of the higher-ups at Liverpool have held firm on their stance to keep the Brazilian, having rejected a third bid from Barcelona, believed to be worth £118m ($151.9m) inclusive of add-ons.

A fourth bid has reportedly arrived, believed to be worth £136m ($174.3m), however, the Reds are expected to reject that as well.

Comolli believes these increased bids from the Copa del Rey champions are all futile as Liverpool simply do not need the money which once upon a time, would have been absurd to reject.

"The landscape of world football has changed so much over the last two years," Comolli told talkSPORT. "If you would have told Liverpool two years ago that they will get a bid £100million for any of their players, they would have said: 'thank you very much, tell us where to drive the player and we'll do it ourselves'."

"But there's so much money coming into the clubs now that they don't really need the cash! There's such an arms race for talent that all the big clubs are fighting each other, because they can only reinforce themselves with players from other big clubs and by definition the big clubs don't need the money.

"My gut feeling is this deal will not happen because Liverpool don't need the money. Coutinho is their most creative player and if they lose him they will destroy everything they've been trying to build since Jurgen Klopp arrived at the club."

Comolli argues that even with the massive windfall that comes with a Coutinho sale, it would be hard to replace him with a player of similar quality.

"What would they do with that money, who do you buy to replace Philippe Coutinho in today's market?" he added. "Do you go to Arsenal for Alexis Sanchez? They will say no. Do you go to Juventus for Dybala? They will say no."

"My belief is that if Liverpool are genuinely not interested about the money and want to keep their best players, they can keep Philippe Coutinho – that's my belief."