'Coutinho bought as Iniesta's replacement'

The Brazilian is closing in on a move to Barca after the Catalan side agreed a £146m fee with Liverpool and speaking to 'Sky Sports' Balague explained that he believes that the Samba star is considered as Andres Iniesta's long-term replacement at the Camp Nou.

Iniesta is now 33 and with his powers expected to wane sooner rather than later, Balague believes that the Barca legend could head to the Chinese Super League at the end of the current campaign, despite having signed a 'contract for life' earlier this season.

However, Balague was also quick to say that Coutinho is likely to play further forward than Iniesta in the immediate future.

"Iniesta is getting old. It has been suggested that this is his last season at Barcelona with huge offers on the table from China," said Balague.

"Barcelona need that type of quality in midfield. Coutinho is not Iniesta yet, in fact they seem him as more of a forward at the moment, but he can develop the skills needed.

"At the beginning Coutinho won't have many defensive obligations without the ball but he'll have to learn those because they see him, in the medium term, as a midfielder.

"They think that for him to do so, he will have to understand the positional game of Barcelona, to do a bigger shift without the ball.

"At the moment what they need straight away is a replacement for Neymar, which they did not get [in the summer]."