Selling Coutinho is a risk for Klopp.. but it is one worth taking
AS always happens when a Liverpool drama unfolds, there’s no shortage of former employees seeking starring roles.
Brendan Rodgers has been quick to take credit for developing “wonderful technician” Philippe Coutinho. And the self-styled “Fernando Torres of finance”, Christian Purslow, has decreed the £142million must not be spent on mediocrity, but on “someone brilliant”, like Paris Saint-germain superstar Marco Verratti, because “they just sold brilliant”.
This being the former MD who replaced Rafa Benitez with Roy Hodgson, and Javier Mascherano with Christian Poulsen.
Cut through the noise and what this transfer boils down to is that Jurgen Klopp has taken a calculated risk. He calculated there was no certainty Coutinho would have regained his focus, or maintained his loyalty, for a second time after being refused his dream move. He calculated his team could do without the hysteria and distraction for another long month.
A bad January killed the Anfield club’s season last year and he wasn’t letting it happen again. So he sold him for a phenomenal amount of money.
They were always going to lose the player once his advisers, Barcelona and Nike (who see the Brazilian as their “Face of The World Cup”), had convinced him his contract was worthless. It’s what happens.
When Coutinho made the PFA Footballer of the Year shortlist in 2015, his fellow nominees included Diego Costa, who went on strike at Chelsea last summer to secure a move back to Atletico Madrid, Alexis Sanchez, who is about to stomp out of Arsenal, and David De Gea, who was a late fax away from moving to Real Madrid two years ago, and who has reportedly told his agent to get that move back on.
A show of strength against today’s player power only lasts so long, as Liverpool found out to their benefit with Virgil van Dijk. So what do you do?
I heard one former Reds player say that, instead of buying South Americans who’ll always want to go to Spain, they should bring through more home-grown lads. Except Steve Mcmanaman and Michael Owen both left Liverpool in the lurch, and out of pocket, the second Real Madrid came knocking.
The best you can hope for is to limit the departures by hiring the right manager and backing his decisions, as he tries to build a trophy-winning side that will attract very good players.
Back to Purslow, who believes if Liverpool don’t let Klopp splash all that cash on brilliance, they will lose him to richer clubs like Manchester United, who “shop at Harrods”. Which overlooks that Klopp believes he will be allowed to spend all the Coutinho money, how Ed Woodward’s offer to manage a club he called “an adult version of Disneyland” made the German nauseous and, since last summer, in Mo Salah, Naby Keita and Van Dijk, he’s signed three players Harrods would proudly put in their shop window.
The wisdom of selling Coutinho depends on whether or not you trust Klopp and his relationship with the owners. But he’s proved two things already this month with Van Dijk. That he won’t be rushed into buying a cheaper version of the man who fits his long-term vision and he does have the clout to persuade top-class players to buy into that vision.
When he saw Coutinho reject every incentive to see out the season, including a huge pay rise and a deal to move to the Nou Camp in the summer, he didn’t think, “No player is bigger than this club”. He thought, “No player can be allowed to be bigger than me”.
I’m guessing Liverpool’s two most important former employees would have felt the same way.
Because, having spoken to both Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley about their philosophies, I reckon they would have seen Coutinho threaten for a second time not to play for them again, looked at the eye-bulging offer, and had him out the door, too. Then moved on.
A show of strength against today’s player power only lasts so long. So what do you do?