The club was fighting until the last second and really tried everything. That’s the case. There was a moment when I knew it would come up again in this transfer window – and it came up massively – and it would then be very difficult if we had said what we could have done, of course, ‘here’s your contract and you have to stay here’, to [then] use him as a player in the second part of the season. That is then a decision I had to make at one point, does it make sense?
Do I think we can use him still? Can he help us still? To be honest, it was 100 per cent clear no chance. He was not ready to do that anymore.
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/first-team/287108-Jürgen-klopp-on-coutinho-transfer-and-january-window