20 Aug 2017 00:59:11
Hi Ed

Now before you say I'm looking for reasons to suggest Barcelona are tapping up, I'm not at all but am just curious as to what your honest take on the matter is.

If it's to be believed that the bid submitted yesterday was flatly rejected, for Barcelona to then return with an ultimatum that if we do not accept by Sunday the bid will be withdrawn, how is this not a form of tapping up the player?

The ultimatum is clearly directed at Coutinho with the aim of unsettling him further to force his way out of the club and if the bid was immediately rejected then there is no bid left to withdraw.

Either way, whether this is a perfectly legitimate negotiation strategy or not it's an underhand tactic and shouldn't be considered acceptable, I wonder what people would have to say if we made such 'ultimatums'.

{Ed002's Note - It is Coutinho who has been courting Barcelona for more than a year.}

1.) 20 Aug 2017
20 Aug 2017 06:19:31
Could it not be argued that VVD courted us? Of course not as we shouldn't have acted the way we did, Barcelona could have said no and like we should have walked away and spoke with the players club first, all a little bit of taste of our own medicine and definitely something we deserve but Barcelona are no better or worse than us in this matter regardless of any courting/ pimping out Couts has done.

2.) 20 Aug 2017
20 Aug 2017 07:32:32
UL, we tapped up VVD, not the other way around and that is why we are here. Move on.