The jury is out on whether Liverpool made the right decision to reject Barcelona's £118 million bid for Philippe Coutinho on Friday.

The Brazilian may be their best player, but this is £118 million we're talking about here - it would make Coutinho football's second most expensive ever player.

Such a vast amount of money would enable Jurgen Klopp to sign whoever he pleases, such as Southampton's Virgil van Dijk.

Liverpool are already blessed with plenty of attacking options and desperately need to improve their defence, as evidenced by last weekend's draw to Watford.

Van Dijk is the solution to their problems, there's no doubt about it, and £60 million from the Coutinho fee would be enough to convince Southampton of selling.

That would leave Liverpool with almost £60 million to spend on a replacement for Coutinho and there are rumours Napoli's Lorenzo Insigne is a target.

The Italian, 26, has been tearing it up in Serie A for Napoli over the past six years and would be a sound investment.

Jermaine Jenas certainly believes Liverpool should cash in on Coutinho, describing their resilience as "cutting off your nose to spite your own face".

He added: "Coutinho has done brilliantly for Liverpool. Yes, they have helped develop him, but the fact is that now the deal of a lifetime has presented itself - not just for him but for the club."

However, it would appear Liverpool's reasoning for rejecting Barcelona's bid wasn't just because they want to keep Coutinho.

As previously reported, Barca offered the Reds an initial £82.1 million and then £36.5 million worth of various add-ons.

In order to trigger the add-ons, Coutinho would need to hit targets set by Barcelona, which the Mirror have now revealed.

It turns out that Barcelona included no less than FIVE ridiculous conditions in order for Liverpool to be paid the full sum of £118 million - and they are:

  • Coutinho winning multiple trophies in the same season
  • Winning multiple Champions League titles
  • Winning the Ballon d'Or as the world's best player
  • Winning multiple trophies and the Ballon d'Or in the same season
  • Payment of the basic £80m fee staggered over five years

It's no wonder Liverpool said no to Barcelona's offer. The Blaugrana have £198 million to play with following the sale of Neymar, yet they suggested staggering the initial £82.1 million over five years.

And then you have the silly targets they wanted to set Coutinho in order to trigger the additional payments, which Liverpool would probably never see. The cheek.