Barcelona's Philippe Coutinho is on his way to sign for Bayern Munich.

The Brazilian playmaker will initially join the Bavarian giants on loan and is not part of Ernesto Valverde's squad to face Athletic Bilbao tonight.

Barca journalist Gerard Romero confirmed the news after an initial report from Jorge Nicola.

The move could see Barca accelerate their bid to re-sign Neymar as his replacement, but Coutinho was expected to be one of the players included in any deal with Paris Saint-Germain.

RAC 1 report that Coutinho's departure directly impacts the negotiations for Neymar, meaning Barca will have to try and tempt PSG with other players.

Arturo Vidal and Ivan Rakitic are two big names that could be included in the package.

Romero also states that Coutinho was fuming with the Barca hierarchy's treatment of him in the last few days.

Their desperation to offload him to PSG - where he would have had to take a pay cut - did not go down well in his camp, which saw Bayern enter the equation.

Coutinho's career in Catalonia did not go according to plan after his arrival from Liverpool in January 2018.

His stint in Spain got off to a decent start initially, but the 2018/19 season saw him fall out of favour with Valverde and he was subjected to jeers from fans on numerous occasions.

The worst of his performances ironically came at Anfield in the Champions League semi-final, where he was anonymous from minute one.

A move to the Bundesliga could be exactly what Coutinho needs, a fresh start in one of the best teams on the planet.

As for Barca, more responsibility will be put on the shoulders of Ousmane Dembele in 2019/20.

And if Neymar doesn't arrive before the September 2 deadline, the Frenchman will play a very involved role in 2019/20.

Do you think Coutinho is a good signing for Bayern? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below.