It's sounds like crazy money, but this is the market for world-class talent at the moment. There's no going around it.
If Coutinho could play the CL, I would be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnWf1sQkjY
Out of all the players you listed, only Messi is clearly better than Coutinho. The rest of them are there or there about, or lesser (Mane)
Ronaldo, Suarez, Silva are all rapidly ageing, whereas Coutinho is has just entered his prime.
Two reasons basically:
a) Lots of people overstate Spain's economic woes.
b) There's a persistent belief (wishful thinking imo) among fans of non-Spanish teams, that both Barca & Real are drowning in debt.
This.
I still can't believe how we got eliminated TWICE by Atleti, last year by Juve and by the atrocious 2012 Chelsea.
We have really bottled several CL seasons.
Of course Dembele is a lesser player to Neymar. But we already have a team talisman (the best there ever has been) we only need Dembele to be effective and workmanlike on that left flank and provide some much needed support for Messi.
I am so eager to see him finally play for us and start integrating into the team.
I have really high hopes for this kid and I fully expect him to help us win the CL.
We are easily the best defensive team across Europe this season.
We also have the defensive steel that Umtiti will soon reinsert into the team along with Dembele's awesome pace.
All the celebrations (for our alleged terminal decline) from our rivals within Spain, in England, France and...
I still have nightmares over both semi-final losses during that period. Both were quite unlucky and against obviously inferior sides.
Also, during the seasons 13/14, 15/16 and 16/17 we could have won at least one more. I could never in the life of me imagine that Atletico could have kicked us...
Just rewatched the 11/12 highlights against Chelsea and reminded myself of one of our club's biggest choke-jobs in its entire history.
Genuinely appalling stuff.
Barcelona - Chelsea 70-30
Real Madrid - PSG 50-50
Man City - Basel 100-0
Man Utd - Sevilla 90-10
Juventus - Tottenham 65-35
Shaktar - Roma 40-60
Bayern - Besiktas 90-10
Liverpool - Porto 70-30