Philippe Coutinho reportedly told Mauricio Pochettino that he did not want to join Tottenham Hotspur during a phone call with the manager on deadline day.
The Brazilian is surplus to requirements under Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde after an underwhelming 2018-19 campaign during which he only scored five league goals.
Reports claimed that Barcelona, having received no offers for Coutinho, had offered the attacking midfielder to Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United as the English transfer deadline approached.
According to The Mirror, Pochettino tried to convince Coutinho to return to England during a one-on-one phone call but the 27-year-old was not interested in leaving Barcelona.
Coutinho has fallen further down the pecking order at Camp Nou following the arrival of Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid for a fee of £108m.
It has been claimed that Barcelona were even willing to offload Coutinho to Paris Saint-Germain as part of a swap deal for Neymar.
Leo Nieboer
