At least Coutinho wasn’t going to Everton!
KLOPP: WHY KOP WILL FORGIVE BRAZIL STAR
JURGEN KLOPP says Liverpool fans will forgive their Brazilian magician Philippe Coutinho... because he wanted to go to Barcelona, not Everton.
Coutinho, whose bid to move to the Nou Camp was blocked by Liverpool, returned to training this week after international duty.
He is not in the squad for today’s visit to Manchester City - but Klopp stressed that his omission has nothing to
do with his desire to leave. The Kop boss said: “Everyone understands that it was Barcelona – it is not as if he wanted to go to Everton. Then it would have been different.” There was anger at Anfield over the timing of Barcelona’s attempts to prise away Coutinho – with their bids always arriving on the eve of a big game. Yet Klopp insisted that “nothing unforgivable happened” and said the Kop playmaker would be given a clean slate.
“There are so many worrying things happening in the world but this is nothing,” he said.
“You have to go through these times – things can be good if you are smart enough to start again.”
And the German compared the relationship with Coutinho to a rekindled romance after a split. “Maybe you have had time apart in a good relationship, with the wife or whatever. It is not good to think about the time you were split,” he said.
“It was not the most easy time for us but that is the transfer window. Nothing I am aware of was unforgivable. “