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Chelsea have been linked with a move for Barcelona star Philippe Coutinho, with the Blues pressing for a loan deal for the Brazilian, with an option to buy.

Coutinho made a big money move to Barcelona in January 2018 but struggled to perform with the Catalan giants, before eventually moving to Bayern Munich on loan, which also didn’t work for him.

Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore has now warned that signing Coutinho could be a big mistake by Chelsea boss Frank Lampard.

“If Frank Lampard signs Philippe Coutinho it could well be his first mistake as Chelsea manager,” Collymore said in his column for The Mirror.

“Being Brazilian has given him a level of kudos that he wouldn’t have if he was from, say, Slovakia, and coming from the same group as Neymar added to it.

“In 90 per cent of matches he actually offers very little in terms of taking a game by the scruff of its neck — he’s a flat-track bully, the player who scores a couple of wonder goals in a 5-0 rout when most of the work has been done.”

Collymore then revealed that the Brazilian was probably overhyped to be a world-class when playing for Liverpool and that he didn’t have the mentality to match world-class stars like Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez when he moved to Barcelona.

“While Liverpool fans liked him for his ability to score a worldie or produce a moment of magic, many knew he was an icing-on-the-cake player,” added the 49-year-old.

“At Barcelona, he was mentally overshadowed by Lionel Messi and players such as Luis Suarez, street kids who are strong, who have that bit of Diego Maradona spite about them.

“Players who look at new kids coming along and say, ‘He ain’t going to be the top man here’.”