Coutinho ‘not for sale’
JURGEN KLOPP has insisted that philippe Coutinho is not for sale at any price. Barcelona launched a £72million bid for the midfielder on Thursday night – as revealed by Sportsmail – having identified Coutinho, 25, as the replacement for Andres Iniesta, who is 33 and in the final year of his contract. Klopp declined to talk about the bid, but insisted Coutinho is not for sale. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That is what we can say. But that is not since yesterday or this morning, it was not different to any time.’ The La Liga giants identified the Brazilian as a target last season, with his international team-mate Neymar expressing his hope that a deal could be arranged. The record fee Liverpool have received was the £75m Barcelona paid for Luis Suarez, and if the Catalan club improve their bid they will go beyond that mark. Klopp believes the interest in the midfielder is a compliment. ‘I’m not surprised that any clubs are interested in players at Liverpool,’ he said. ‘A few people obviously see that Liverpool has a few good players. But it’s a very important message to make — we are not a selling club. We want to make the next step together and for this we need to stay together.’ Meanwhile, Liverpool have confirmed the capture of Hull left back Andrew Robertson for around £8m. Midfielder Kevin Stewart has moved the opposite way on a three-year deal.