Philippe Coutinho will not travel with the Liverpool squad for its warm-weather training camp in Dubai in an effort to push through a transfer to Barcelona, according to The Telegraph’s Chris Bascombe.

The Reds are preparing in the United Arab Emirates for next weekend’s Premier League clash with Manchester City, but Coutinho’s involvement in that match now appears unlikely after opting out of the trip.

The Brazilian hasn’t featured for Liverpool since the January transfer window opened, with his latest absence coming in Friday’s FA Cup third-round win over Everton due to a supposed thigh injury.

The red half of Merseyside is determined to keep Coutinho, and is apparently prepared to refuse offers worth as much as £140 million. Liverpool is even disposed to receiving less money in the summer to allow him to feature in the remainder of its 2017-18 Premier League, Champions League, and FA Cup campaigns.

Liverpool is also open to a similar deal to the one it struck with RB Leipzig for Naby Keita, with Coutinho signing for Barcelona now but then effectively staying on loan at Anfield until the end of the season.

However, there is a growing acceptance at Anfield that the club is fighting a losing battle. The fact Coutinho would be ineligible for Barcelona in the knockout stages of the Champions League appears to be no deterrent for the midfielder. Joaquim Piera of Spanish publication SPORT believes there is already an agreement in principle for the sale barring any late hitches in negotiations, and that the Brazilian will sign a five-year contract in Catalonia.

If a transfer is completed, it will conclude a long-term pursuit from Barcelona for the 25-year-old. Liverpool rebuffed three Blaugrana proposals and denied a transfer request from Coutinho last summer. The final spurned bid was worth £118 million including clauses, prompting Liverpool to release a stoic club statement in August that said “no offers for Philippe would be considered.”

This time, Liverpool’s resolve seems to be ebbing away.

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brian Gutekunst wants Eliot Wolf to be his top advisor, but the Green Bay Packers general manager says he will understand if his longtime coworker leaves after getting passed over for the job.

It sounds like Gutekunst will let him go.

Wolf, who holds the position of director of football operations, did not receive a promotion Monday, when the Packers introduced Gutekunst as GM and announced changes to their management structure to include president Mark Murphy as the overseer of Gutekunst, executive vice president/football operations Russ Ball and coach Mike McCarthy.

“I would envision him kind of being a right-hand man to me,” Gutekunst said of Wolf on Monday following his introductory news conference. “We have a great relationship. I’m very fond of the person, and the scout is excellent. I’ve told him that. I really want him to be here. But I also know he has other opportunities, and I wouldn’t hold him back from that because I care about him. But if he was here, I’d like to get him more involved in the college side of stuff and have a broader approach to what he’s been doing.”

Because the 35-year-old Wolf is still under contract with the Packers, Gutekunst could block him from taking anything other than a GM job with another team, but it doesn’t sound like he would prevent Wolf from leaving.

New Browns general manager John Dorsey wants to hire Wolf as one of his top advisers. Dorsey, the former Packers’ personnel executive, already hired away Alonzo Highsmith to be his vice president of football operations.

Barcelona unveiled club-record signing Philippe Coutinho to the press Monday, ending a long-winded drama tracing back to the end of the summer transfer window.

He’ll just have to wait a little longer to make his debut.

Upon completing a reported €160-million transfer from Liverpool on Monday and signing a five-and-a-half-year contract with the Blaugrana, the Brazilian was ruled out for around three weeks with a pre-existing thigh problem.

But the news couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Once the Brazilian consummated his new contract, he presented himself alongside president Jose Maria Bartomeu and performed the customary kickieuppies as he greeted thousands of supporters at the Camp Nou.

Barcelona and Liverpool agreed to the megadeal on Saturday, with the former committed to paying a reported €120 million up front and a further €40 million in add-ons. Coutinho even covered a chunk of that amount to avoid any last-minute hitches, according to The Times’ Paul Joyce.

Coutinho’s buyout clause is also set at a whopping €400 million.

The 25-year-old long campaigned for this move to happen. Although his performances for Liverpool in the first half of the season showed no signs of distractions, manager Jurgen Klopp said Coutinho was “desperate” to join Barcelona. Neither Klopp nor Liverpool’s owners were able to convince the Brazilian to stay.

He is now the second-most expensive footballer in the sport’s history, behind only Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar. Kylian Mbappe will surpass Coutinho once PSG makes the on-loan teenager’s €180-million transfer from Monaco permanent.

“I want to thank the president and everyone who has made it possible,” he told reporters. “I am very happy, it’s a dream come true, and I hope to be up to the job on the field.”

He continued: “It’s very emotional for me to wear the shirt of the most important club in the world. I am anxious to get going.”

However, Coutinho won’t have the opportunity to play for Barcelona in the Champions League knockout round because he is cup-tied. He already appeared in the tournament’s group stage with Liverpool.

Coutinho missed Liverpool’s first two matches of 2018 with the thigh injury. Some suspected he had exaggerated the issue to finally push through a deal that had been in the works since last summer. Back then, he complained of back pain right around the time Barcelona made its first bid.

The Independent reported in September that a scan revealed “nothing was wrong with him.” Coutinho later represented Brazil in a World Cup qualifier, with the team’s doctor noting that he was in “perfect condition” to play.

But Monday’s medical at Barcelona’s Ciutat Esportiva facility confirmed his current injury is, in fact, real.

Should he need the scheduled three weeks to recover, he would have a chance to make his Barcelona debut against Alaves at home on Jan. 28. He would also be in contention to face former side Espanyol on Feb. 4.

The midfielder has prior experience in La Liga, having played on loan at Espanyol during the 2011-12 season. That was long before he emerged as one of the world’s best playmakers – a role in which he relished at Anfield.

Coutinho spent five years on Merseyside, registering 54 goals and 43 assists after arriving from Inter in 2013 for a measly €9.6 million.

Wild-card weekend is, in many ways, a setup for the best weekend of the NFL calendar.

Now that the field is set for next weekend’s divisional-round — when the league’s top eight teams will scramble to advance to the conference championships — let’s reset the playoffs.

AFC

Saturday, Jan. 13: 8:15 p.m. ET, CBS | Game HQ

Titans lowdown: Tennessee has already advanced further than most thought after upsetting the Chiefs in the wild-card round. The Titans did, however, demonstrate a winning playoff formula: A reliance on the power running of tailback Derrick Henry and the improvisation of quarterback Marcus Mariota. Henry averaged 3.8 yards after first contact against Kansas City, which is precisely the kind of playmaking an underdog team would need to pull off a road playoff victory. Read more on the Titans from Cameron Wolfe.

Patriots lowdown: Some observers were rattled by a round of sub-Hall of Fame play from quarterback Tom Brady, who threw interceptions in five consecutive late-season games. But remember the big picture: In a league with no perfect teams, the Patriots have lost only once since Oct. 1. Brady has had an extra week to nurse shoulder and Achilles injuries, and tight end Rob Gronkowski is as healthy as he has ever been in January. It seems likely that the franchise is headed toward an offseason reset to some degree — coordinators Josh McDaniel and Matt Patricia are receiving heavy interest as potential head coaches. But for now, the relatively weak state of the AFC bracket puts the Patriots in excellent position for a run at their eighth Super Bowl appearance in the Brady-Bill Belichick era. Read more on the Patriots from Mike Reiss.

From the wild-card round through Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, ESPN.com has the playoffs covered.

• Schedule, coverage, more »
• Barnwell’s preview: A guide to all 66 possible matchups »

Vikings lowdown: Minnesota had the NFL’s best defense this season, whether you measure by points allowed per game (15.8), yards (275.9) or third-down percentage (25.2). Fourteen of the Vikings’ 16 opponents managed less than 20 points. Well-rounded and healthy, the unit is poised to control the NFC playoffs. From a team perspective, perhaps the biggest question is whether quarterback Case Keenum can continue his charmed play. He finished the season ranked second in Total QBR (69.7) after five seasons as a backup. Sunday will mark his first playoff appearance. Read more on the Vikings from Courtney Cronin.