Barcelona will reportedly step up their pursuit of Liverpool playmaker Philippe Coutinho.
The Brazil international remains a key objective for the Catalan giants this summer as they face the prospect of losing Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain.
A £72 million offer was rejected by the Reds last week and contrary to claims, Click Liverpool understands Coutinho has not agreed personal terms with Barca.
But a proposed move to the Nou Camp continues to be touted with the latest reports in Spain suggesting that an improved offer is set to be made shortly.
According to Catalan newspaper Sport, Barcelona will now aim to tempt Liverpool into selling Coutinho with an approach in the region of £76m.
The report also alleges that the 25-year-old is prepared to take a pay cut on his current £150,000-a-week wage due to his confidence at winning titles with Barca.
Kop legend Jamie Carragher admits that he is hopefuly his former club can keep Coutinho out of Barcelona’s clutches for at least another season.
“Hopefully we can get 12 more months out of him,” he told 5times.co.uk.
“When he signed his five-year deal, I didn’t think that he would see it out.
“There is no doubt that at one stage in his career Philippe will want to play for one of the Spanish giants as many of the South American players do.
“Barcelona and Real Madrid are seen as the two biggest teams in world football who always have the best players.
“I think that Liverpool fans should really enjoy him over the next 12 months as if a big money offer does come in at the end of next season and if the player wants to play for Barcelona then there is not really much LFC can do.
“Let’s just hope we see him in a Liverpool shirt next season, which I think we will, and then let’s see where things go from there.”
Anfield officials have maintained that Coutinho is not for sale at any price and are still unwilling to part with last season’s top scorer in spite of any lucrative offers.
Liverpool’s stance mirrors that of RB Leipzig, who themselves turned down offers which rose to £66m to lure Naby Keita to the red half of Merseyside.
Jurgen Klopp is expected to shelve plans to sign Keita until next summer, when the Guinean midfielder will be available for a cut-price fee of £48m.