Philippe Coutinho, Liverpool’s ‘little magician’, has been a prime transfer target for La Liga giants Barcelona who have raided the Reds repeatedly and snapped up two of their biggest names in recent years – Javier Mascherano in summer 2010 and none other than Luis Suarez after he had a ‘bite of Chiellini’ in 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Will the Reds be ‘third time lucky’ to combat another high-profile exit? Well, German chief Jurgen Klopp certainly thinks so.
‘The word “not” means there is nothing to interpret. It is nothing new from our point of view.’
Klopp destroyed all speculations linking him to the Catalans even if the over enthusiastic Spanish media has read Coutinho’s mind and found him as Neymar’s replacement who is 90% close to joining Paris Saint-Germain and the percentage has not deviated since their wild €222 mil bid for the Brazilian a couple of weeks back.
What if another gigantic offer wrecks Liverpool’s resolve? What if a monstrous wage approach turns Coutinho’s head? What if the club lets him leave prior to summer transfer deadline?
We will definitely try to analyse on long-term effects. But immediate reaction will see a ‘twitter meltdown’, fans cursing club’s American owners FSG, ITKs ( who claimed Coutinho won’t leave) will deactivate their profiles following failed attempts of blocking innumerable abusive tweets, Jamie Carragher will pour his frustration and swallow Gary Neville’s witticism and most notably, Klopp will be compared with Brendan Rodgers by head to head stats and transfer spending.
Liverpool’s history of replacing their superstars has been unparalleled: they replaced Mascherano with the great Christian Poulsen, a couple of ‘exciting’ marksmen were brought in to succeed hitman Luis Suarez. Southampton’s ( as always) Rickie Lambert and unexcelled Mario Balotelli netted 3 league goals combined and failed to match Suarez by a narrow margin who netted only 28 more goals in the previous campaign that won him 2013-14 Premier League Golden Boot award.
So who will be Coutinho’s replacement in case the Reds’ lose their battle to keep hold of their Brazilian? Klopp will express his jubilation with the players he already got, however, they might have to bring in someone to avoid a frenzy of rage.
Considering club’s previous transfer mastery, Nathan Redmond of Southampton ( in case they don’t report of another ‘tapping-up’) will be first preference to replace the Samba sensation. Few Liverpool greats are anticipating life without Coutinho already. Luis Garcia, the man who moved the other way round ( from Barcelona to Liverpool), has tweeted his uncertainty regarding the Brazilian’s future.
I start feeling strange with the possibility of Neymar leaving Barça and Coutinho Liverpool. Bad feeling !! They are perfect where they are.
— Luis Garcia (@LuchoGarcia14) July 31, 2017
Coutinho’s egress will create a pandemonium and Anfield faithful Steven Gerrard might reconsider about coming out of retirement leaving his U18s coaching role behind! Well, that won’t be the case anyway, however, he will still be a far better option than recruiting another Joe Cole or Milan Jovanović.
Klopp, therefore, must stick to his plan of retaining Coutinho and if he lacks motivation there is always an instance of Naby Keita who was denied his transfer by the German rookies RB Leipzig despite the player’s willingness to join the Reds. Also, they can report of a ‘tapping up’ to UEFA, a term the Reds have learned the hard way very recently.
