Respected Brazilian journalist clarifies claim Coutinho to Barcelona is done deal

Marcelo Belcher may not be a household name on Merseyside.

That said, he was trending amongst Liverpool fans on Friday night for the most ominous of footballing reasons. That's because social media was ablaze with the news that he had an exclusive about the future of Philippe Coutinho. With Neymar having completed his astronomical (and some would say obscene) move to PSG, the Liverpool playmaker has been widely touted as his compatriot's replacement at Camp Nou. Coutinho is widely accepted as Barca's number one target. Thus far Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp has remained publicly resolute that the 25-year-old was going nowhere, but Esporte Interativo’s Marcelo Belcher was quoted as saying the Liverpool star's move to Catalan was a 'done deal', people took notice. That's because Belcher is a respected authority on Brazilian football and Brazilian footballers, and indeed was the first major journalist to break the Neymar to PSG story - something that some derided him for at the time. Needless to say, he had the last laugh. The news he had 'announced' the Coutinho deal spread like wildfire. https://twitter.com/Bookieinsiders/status/893514408038723584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redcafe.net%2Fthreads%2Ftransfer-tweets-summer-2017-keep-it-on-topic.429443%2Fpage-742 But thankfully for Liverpool fans, Belcher was quick to respond to such talk, claiming he said no such thing: https://twitter.com/marcelobechler/status/893619811690983424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redcafe.net%2Fthreads%2Ftransfer-tweets-summer-2017-keep-it-on-topic.429443%2Fpage-742 If your Portuguese is as weak as ours, the translation reads: "I did not say any of that. Journalist suffering with fake news is the dog biting its own tail." It just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read in this most silliest of silly seasons.