Just when the rumours of Paris Saint-Germain’s interest in Liverpool attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho started to cool somewhat, the speculation regarding the future of the 23-year old has been ratcheted back up once again with Catalan juggernauts Barcelona apparently reviving their interest in the Brazilian handyman. As effective with the charm offensive off the pitch as they are with intricate passing triangles on it, we’ve seen the likes of Neymar and former Reds striker Luis Suarez sweet talk the Rio born magician before, but this time it’s coming from someone heading for the exit door at the Nou Camp.
“Football is about living the moment,” Dani Alves told Yahoo Esportes, waxing philosophical. “Liverpool have history but you should consider playing for top Champions League sides,” he said, not exactly masking his feelings that Coutinho should consider leaving Liverpool, before the veteran fullback added the kicker, “He has the quality to play for Barcelona.”
That, of course, can be argued either way. While there’s little question that he has the ability to turn in a world class performance, the 23-year old has been plagued by inconsistency — something that could be rectified greatly with better players around him. Although Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is expected to bring in a number of upgrades to the Reds squad over the summer, whatever additions he does make certainly won’t bring the Anfield outfit up to the same level that he’d find in Catalonia. With that being said, the German manager has also said on more than one occasion that he won’t be hanging on to players that don’t want to stick around.
“Everything is okay at the moment but nobody in the world – maybe only Lionel Messi – is unsellable,” said Klopp back in March. “There is always a situation. I come from a club where the best players are always picked by other teams and in the end you have to accept a few things. You always need to have a Plan B or a Plan C. If a player comes to me and says he doesn’t feel comfortable and wants to leave because of our style of play or because he can make more money elsewhere, then you always have to start thinking. That’s all I can say on this,” said the 43-year old, who was no stranger to having to sell off his best players during his time at Borussia Dortmund. “Coutinho, [Roberto] Firmino, so many players are very special. You could go through the whole squad. But if a player wants to go to another club then I’d always be open to it because I don’t want to have a player in my squad who doesn’t want to be in the squad. These are problems you don’t need during a season. A player is never good enough for you to have to cope with problems like that for an entire year.”
