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Coutinho gone. 142m

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If we can get a quality midfielder who can pass the ball in the alonso mode, it would soften the blow of selling him. Courtinho passing knits the team together
 
Liverpool, Philippe Coutinho and why the long goodbye at Anfield has already started

The rhetoric has changed when it comes to the Brazilian - it's now a question of when he moves to Spain

  • BY JAMES PEARCE
  • 05:00, 9 DEC 2017UPDATED19:59, 8 DEC 2017
There’s no question that the rhetoric has changed.
Last summer Liverpool were unequivocal that Philippe Coutinho was going nowhere.

From Fenway Sports Group’s statement that “no offers would be considered” to Jurgen Klopp declaring that “you couldn’t put a price” on the Brazil international.
Despite Barcelona’s refusal to take no for an answer and Coutinho stamping his feet and putting in a transfer request, Liverpool stood firm. Three offers, the final one a headline-grabbing bid of £118million when you included the hefty add-ons, were all instantly rejected.

Coutinho stayed put and knuckled down like Klopp knew he would. But the saga was never over and now it’s been re-ignited with the January window on the horizon.
Reports in Spain suggesting a £128million deal has already been struck should be taken with a pinch of salt. The same outlets had the 25-year-old down for an unveiling at the Camp Nou back in August.

But there’s no doubt that Barca’s desire to sign Anfield’s little magician remains as strong as ever and Coutinho’s longing to join the Catalan giants is unwavering.
Rather than dismiss a potential sale out of hand, Liverpool have been non-committal.

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” said CEO Peter Moore on Friday. “Maybe ask Jurgen when you see him later.”
Klopp, who earlier in the week said he was neither sure nor unsure that Coutinho would stay at Liverpool for the rest of the season, added: “Nobody came to me so far and said: ‘Phil will be away in January’.”
The reality is; it’s a question of when not if Coutinho heads to Spain.
Timing was everything last summer. Liverpool’s hierarchy knew that justifying the sale of Coutinho in August - on the cusp of the new season and with Liverpool returning to the Champions League would have been impossible. He had only signed a new five-year deal a few months earlier.
The Reds simply wouldn’t have been able to recruit a suitable replacement at that stage of the window and would have stood accused of showing a lack of ambition.
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Jurgen Klopp was determined to keep Coutinho(Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Klopp was fully on board with that decision but don’t expect him to make a habit of keeping players who declare that they would rather be elsewhere.
Now an offer in the region of £120million would certainly be given more consideration, whether that arrives in January or June.
Not only have Liverpool had time to prepare themselves for such an eventuality but this season has shown that while Coutinho remains massively influential, he’s not in a class of his own in Klopp’s squad. Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are arguably even more important to the manager.
Common sense would suggest that all parties decide to wait until next summer to do business. With Liverpool in the last 16 of the Champions League, he should want to stick around as he wouldn’t be eligible to play for Barca in the knockout stages.
But if it does happen in January, Liverpool will need to have something special up their sleeve - namely Virgil van Dijk, Naby Keita or preferably both.
Bolstering the backline is undoubtedly the priority and the Reds will move swiftly if Southampton soften their stance on Van Dijk. The Dutch centre-back remains desperate to play for Klopp.
RB Leipzig’s exit from the Champions League sparked renewed talk of Keita’s move to Anfield being brought forward from next summer but that remains a long shot.
keitamonacogoal.jpg

Naby Keita is on his way, but not in January.(Image: VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images))

While Liverpool agreed to pay a premium on top of the Guinea midfielder’s £48million release clause, there is no option which they could trigger to get him earlier than July 2018. That would need to be negotiated but the Bundesliga outfit are banking on Keita to stay and earn them a Champions League spot before his departure.
Wednesday night was one of the finest nights of Coutinho’s Liverpool career. Having been handed the captaincy, he walked away with the matchball after his first hat-trick for the Reds.
After a slow start to the campaign, he’s hit top form ahead of Sunday’s Merseyside derby. There are echoes of Luis Suarez four years ago after he was denied the move he wanted.
“Last summer there was a job offer in the same way that happens with any employee and I was interested in it,” Coutinho admitted after the demolition of Spartak Moscow. “Since I stayed, I have played with will and desire.”
Coutinho’s right but like Suarez before him this is the long goodbye.
 
Is this news? We would have sold him last summer if Barca put in a bid early. They decided to wait until August which would have royally fucked us and that was probably the main reason why we didn't let him go.
 
Is this news? We would have sold him last summer if Barca put in a bid early. They decided to wait until August which would have royally fucked us and that was probably the main reason why we didn't let him go.
As big a reason was that their offers were stupid with ridiculous add-ons. It was easy for LFC to tell them to fuck off.
 
As big a reason was that their offers were stupid with ridiculous add-ons. It was easy for LFC to tell them to fuck off.
We would have sold him for £80 mill before the Neymar transfer.
Yeah I actually believe we would have bit their hand off if they came with that offer in early June.
 
He was pushed out? How? The season before was average and Rafa was well within his rights and the season after his form did pick up.
Not the fact he was pining for the Real move and couldn't handle the 5% tax rise? Let's try not to rewrite history, Xabi wanted out and got out when we needed him the most.

He had a poor season (it happens) and the manager wanted to replace him with Gareth fucking Barry.
I don't remember any 'pining for Madrid' moves - it's obvious he loved the club (based on how he talked during and after), so it seems his bridges were burned.

If anyone is rewriting history, I think it's you honestly but it's probably somewhere in the middle I guess.
 
He had a poor season (it happens) and the manager wanted to replace him with Gareth fucking Barry.
I don't remember any 'pining for Madrid' moves - it's obvious he loved the club (based on how he talked during and after), so it seems his bridges were burned.

If anyone is rewriting history, I think it's you honestly but it's probably somewhere in the middle I guess.
Tend to take things personally much?
He made it clear he wanted to go and forced our hand, it irrespective of what happened the season before. He wanted to go, nothing in the middle about it.
He may have loved the club but in the end he wanted out, It was all his choice and thought with him going in about the increasing in tax rate at the time while a lot of people in UK where losing their jobs, he was quiet open about it. I don't really see how it was anything but Xabi's choice that year...
 
He had a poor season (it happens) and the manager wanted to replace him with Gareth fucking Barry.
I don't remember any 'pining for Madrid' moves - it's obvious he loved the club (based on how he talked during and after), so it seems his bridges were burned.

If anyone is rewriting history, I think it's you honestly but it's probably somewhere in the middle I guess.

Nope, he's absolutely correct, Alonso was well below par and Rafa's Metaphorical kick up the arse brought out the very best in him. Incidentally, as big a clogger as Gareth fucking Barry was/is he was doing a job in the premiership at the time. He could have done a job for us, offering protection to the back four whilst having the ability to drop into left back position when our full-back went marauding down the line. I don't know if Rafa was serious about Barry, all I have are the stories Rafa bashers banged on with. The way Alonso talks about us brings a little bile to my mouth after the way he couldn't wait to get out.
 
Tend to take things personally much?
He made it clear he wanted to go and forced our hand, it irrespective of what happened the season before. He wanted to go, nothing in the middle about it.
He may have loved the club but in the end he wanted out, It was all his choice and thought with him going in about the increasing in tax rate at the time while a lot of people in UK where losing their jobs, he was quiet open about it. I don't really see how it was anything but Xabi's choice that year...

Personally? me? Nah mate, you've got the wrong poster.
Xabi forced it after what happened with Rafa ... i.e. bridges were burned. He didn't want to play for him. That's how I read it -
 
Nope, he's absolutely correct, Alonso was well below par and Rafa's Metaphorical kick up the arse brought out the very best in him. Incidentally, as big a clogger as Gareth fucking Barry was/is he was doing a job in the premiership at the time. He could have done a job for us, offering protection to the back four whilst having the ability to drop into left back position when our full-back went marauding down the line. I don't know if Rafa was serious about Barry, all I have are the stories Rafa bashers banged on with. The way Alonso talks about us brings a little bile to my mouth after the way he couldn't wait to get out.

Serious? It was all over the media - but I guess the best way to get an answer that will suit the 'Rafa _____' (not sure why it's necessary but just to go along with you, even though I don't consider myself a 'basher') is that either Barry or Rafa confirms it one day in their memoirs. One of those two should know!

I don't hold any ill-will to Xabi ... but then again, those days of holding those kind of feelings are gone (old age doing its thang)
 
Personally? me? Nah mate, you've got the wrong poster.
Xabi forced it after what happened with Rafa ... i.e. bridges were burned. He didn't want to play for him. That's how I read it -
The thing is, for a player who didn't wanna play for Rafa, he player an entire season brilliantly and then wanted out. Pretty sure it was constant in the media, I didn't have any bad feeling about him leaving as Club under the American's weren't exactly progressive but when he left, it opened the doors.
 
The thing is, for a player who didn't wanna play for Rafa, he player an entire season brilliantly and then wanted out. Pretty sure it was constant in the media, I didn't have any bad feeling about him leaving as Club under the American's weren't exactly progressive but when he left, it opened the doors.

Yah - credit to Rafa & him (regardless what really happened).
Part of me thinks that brilliant season was a 'fuck you' to Rafa ("Think I'm not good enough? let me show you") and ensuring he'd be wanted by the top clubs in the world, which is what happened.
 
He was fucking shit the season before and I would have swapped him for Barry. The only club who were interested in him were Juve, but they didn't think he was worth 13m

And he's a fucking Tory
 
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Yep season before he left was probably his worst season for us. Think he had trouble with injuries that season too.
 
He just said that all the Spanish players would be off if the top rate of tax went up. He was right like.
 
News coming out that Dortmund are sacking Peter Bosz. Let's get Pulisic in while they're in transition!

More than that, the manager Borussia chose to appoint as successor (a permanent one, not a placeholder) is Peter Stöger. If you don't know anything about him, he is Bundesliga's answer to Tony Pulis – a purely defensive disciplinarian who is always chewing gum and wearing a stupid hat – in other words a total break with the progressive coaching lineage of Klopp, Tuchel and Bozs. He enjoyed by far the best finish of his career at 5th place last season with Köln, but then (in what should have been a perfect illustration of the flukiness of that result) presided over the worst start by any team in Bundesliga history (3 points after 15 games!) and was duly sacked by Köln last week.

Quite what Dortmund brass were thinking plucking the German Tony Pulis from the bottom-place team to nurture the delicate talents of Pulisic, Weigl and Aubameyang is a mystery that would make Agatha Christie stumped. I'm sure Aubameyang is a goner, perhaps in the January window already, and hopefully this will make Pulisic think about moving as well (hopefully to us and not Real Madrid or something).
 
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According to certain websites he has asked to leave LFC with reports Barca are preparing €145m bid. If it is true, do we sell?
 
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