Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona)

I don't get the articles where it's saying were trying to convince him to stay.

He's under contract for another four f**king years!

Should be a simple 'Your not going anywhere this window Phil'.
I totally agree with you mate but I’m resigned to losing him now I’m just hoping we get a huge fee and he stays put until the summer.
I don’t get why he wouldn’t want to finish his time at Liverpool with maybe an FA Cup medal or dare I say it an appearance in the Champions League final. With him in the team that is achievable in my opinion.

Apologies, I screwed up my post there😊

I don't get the articles where it's saying were trying to convince him to stay.

He's under contract for another four f**king years!

Should be a simple 'Your not going anywhere this window Phil'.

Yep the equation is simple, there are really only 2 scenarios.

1) He is still on a lengthy contact so if we don't want to sell just tell them to F**k off... No convincing needed.

2) Someone at the club has had enough and wants him gone. He wants out and the club he wants is after him. Just F***ing sell him... No convincing needed.

Two scenarios that apply to both selling him now or in the summer, both the same solutions.

It really is that simple.

Selling Coutinho or any top player mid-season is sending out the wrong message, all it achieves is proof that our negotiations are weak and are open to persuasion,

We should hold the exact same stance of what we had back in August, but at the same time inform Phil is wishes will be met come the summer, it makes absolutely no sense letting him go now irrespective of his feelings,

What advantages are there for him moving now? He can only play league & cup games in La Liga, whereas staying put he plays league, CL & FA cup,
No one at the club are denying him his desired move, we simply want him to end his career at Anfield by seeing out the last months of the season, i believe that is the most amicable solution and one all parties hopefully  accept and agree to.


YNWA

I find it strange why Barca are so desperate to sign him now too.

They are 14 points ahead of Madrid in la liga, surely they won't be caught now half way through the season.

They can't play couts in the CL so why spend 140m on him now?

It makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense for us to sell or for them to buy. Both clubs are well on track to meet their targets this season.

Bizarre.

I find it strange why Barca are so desperate to sign him now too.

They are 14 points ahead of Madrid in la liga, surely they won't be caught now half way through the season.

They can't play couts in the CL so why spend 140m on him now?

It makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense for us to sell or for them to buy. Both clubs are well on track to meet their targets this season.

Bizarre.

I'm with you in that I think Coutinho is in our top 3 players (I'd put Salah and Bob in there too).
Doesn't appear to make a whole lot of sense for Barca/us to to a deal in Jan, agree.

What's driving it is Coutinho (and his people) !!! He DESPERATELY wants to leave, and I think that HE thinks he's played his last game for us.
Ideally we keep him for the rest of the season, then he goes in summer. BUT he could very easily miss the whole of January 'injured' - would not surprise me in the slightest given what went on at the start of the season.

Also, although ideally we keep him till end of summer, you can't dismiss our record without him in games, which yes is only a part of the story, but must be a consideration when thinking of selling. Tbh, I also think his performance has dropped off WITHOUT the ball, don't think he's enough of an influence in the games anymore where we are on the back foot/behind.
Plus VVD hasn't started playing with us yet. 

I find it strange why Barca are so desperate to sign him now too.

They are 14 points ahead of Madrid in la liga, surely they won't be caught now half way through the season.

They can't play couts in the CL so why spend 140m on him now?

It makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense for us to sell or for them to buy. Both clubs are well on track to meet their targets this season.

Bizarre.

They can rest Iniesta for the CL games and also if he has a great WC the danger is PSG come into the market.

I imagine he is being told by Barca it's now or never hence the suggestions of they are looking at Griezman.
They are calling his bluff.

We are still waiting for a actual bid all speculation at the moment being fed to Joyce et al.

If some of you can't see that he's our best player then I'd go as far as saying that you don't understand football. The lad is an absolute joy to watch and nobody else in our squad is on his level. Nobody understands the game the way he does. Believe me, you'll see how good he is when he moves to Barca.

Word.

Really weird that people are making a case for him being sh*t. He's levels above anything we have got and I struggle to think of many, if any, that are better at doing what he does.

They can rest Iniesta for the CL games and also if he has a great WC the danger is PSG come into the market.

I imagine he is being told by Barca it's now or never hence the suggestions of they are looking at Griezman.
They are calling his bluff.

We are still waiting for a actual bid all speculation at the moment being fed to Joyce et al.

Yep agree,they tried in the summer and got fu**ed off so they were always going to try again at the next earliest opportunity which is obviously this January window,they simply want to get the deal tied up ,they are like a child wanting the newest/latest  toy 'we don't want it next week we want it now'.

I find it strange why Barca are so desperate to sign him now too.

Maybe Nike want him to sign for Barca so that they can rake in the moolah during the World Cup. Think Barca, Brazil and Coutinho have Nike deals.

Word.

Really weird that people are making a case for him being sh*t. He's levels above anything we have got and I struggle to think of many, if any, that are better at doing what he does.

Probably trying to convince themselves. The stat about win percentage with and without him means nothing imo. For an example of how misleading this can be, I remember a few seasons back when Messi was out injured and there was a similar stat flaunted about regularly. I don’t imagine there was any debate amongst fans as to whether or not he should start when fit.

The Coutinho debacle is everywhere i turn. We have a problem? No we don't.

He is under contract, we do not have to sell now. Barcelona are so desperate to sign him after the Summer circus that they will do anything to get him to avoid looking like a complete bunch of cu*ts AGAIN!

If you know somebody is desperate (as Barcelona are) then you F***ing milk the cu*ts for every single euro/pound you can. If it was up to me it would be £150 million straight cash. No add-on bonuses based on appearances, titles, silverware and goals/assists. You want him, this is the price.

Another position we cannot leave ourselves in is that where we are left with no suitable replacement. Lemar seems to be the name on the tips of all tongues concerning this transfer but if we cannot get him now then Coutinho waits, it cannot be any other way. The only player we currently have who is anywhere near capable of standing in for Coutinho is Lallana and he has just come back from a long injury lay off so that wouldn't be wise to rely on him right now.

I have to say that all the stats pertaining to the performance of the team when Coutinho plays or doesn't play mean absolutely nothing to me. There are so many variables involved when using stats, for instance were the back five identical for all those games? I doubt it, most games we lost have been due to poor defensive errors and goalkeeping errors and stats don't show indirect involvements of players in goal scoring / chance creating environments.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are a far better team with Coutinho in it. He is a truly world class player and there is a reason that one of the biggest clubs in the world are hell bent on gaining his services. It most certainly isn't based on our win ratio when he doesn't play.

Let me ask a question, are our chances of winning silverware this Season enhanced or diminished with Coutinho in the starting eleven? I'd be amazed if anybody would say we stand a better chance without him.

Word.

Really weird that people are making a case for him being sh*t. He's levels above anything we have got and I struggle to think of many, if any, that are better at doing what he does.

If there was a better player than Coutinho around in his position then Barcelona would be after him, Coutinho wouldn't even be in the equation. As much as i hate Coutinho at this particular moment in time, i am not stupid enough to let that cloud my judgement on his undeniable world class ability and talent.

They can rest Iniesta for the CL games and also if he has a great WC the danger is PSG come into the market.

I imagine he is being told by Barca it's now or never hence the suggestions of they are looking at Griezman.
They are calling his bluff.

We are still waiting for a actual bid all speculation at the moment being fed to Joyce et al.

A lot of money to spend mid season just to give iniesta a bit of a breather though isn't it?

Good point about PSG but if coutinhos heart is set on Barca so much then they shouldn't be that worried.

Even if Barca are giving him an ultimatum it still seems odd to do it now. I don't understand why they desperately need him at this point in the season. If they were 5 points behind real then I'd understand it more.

It seems like a deliberate attempt just to piss us off because we wouldn't bend over for them in the summer!

It's amazing what emotions a transfer request can generate.

Once dubbed 'The Little Magician', he is now in danger of becoming 'Paul Daniels.'

A lot of money to spend mid season just to give iniesta a bit of a breather though isn't it?

Good point about PSG but if coutinhos heart is set on Barca so much then they shouldn't be that worried.

Even if Barca are giving him an ultimatum it still seems odd to do it now. I don't understand why they desperately need him at this point in the season. If they were 5 points behind real then I'd understand it more.

It seems like a deliberate attempt just to piss us off because we wouldn't bend over for them in the summer!

I’d invest £150m on a cryogenic time machine if I was them for Iniesta.

More than anybody else he made me realise the limitations visually of watching on telly. 50% of his passes look like they’ll be intercepted but they are just outta reach.

Once in every 30 years player Iniesta. Awesome talent.

PS: also the face of ice cream in Tenerife btw.

I find it strange why Barca are so desperate to sign him now too.

They are 14 points ahead of Madrid in la liga, surely they won't be caught now half way through the season.

They can't play couts in the CL so why spend 140m on him now?

It makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense for us to sell or for them to buy. Both clubs are well on track to meet their targets this season.

Bizarre.

Since they elect a president usually his term is rated by how many titles won’t and stars he brought during his time, usually during campaign they personally agree to bring X or Y player if elected.

Losing Neymar to PSG, not being able to bring Verratti and Coutinho in the summer and  Dortmund taking them to the cleaners over Dembele (barely managed to get that these done) were things that weakened his position as president. Their fans thinks he is not doing a good job because, even with all the Neymar money available, he could get players from teams that they consider are lesser to them.

So if he wants to run for another term or one of his same group they have to move fast and get one if their targets otherwise people from other tendencies (like Laporta) will start again to speak against him. So since it’s also quite possible that after the WC other teams will show interest in Coutinho and his value will increase he has to move fasts, which is also a risky move if he doesn’t get a deal done this window.

I find it strange why Barca are so desperate to sign him now too.

They are 14 points ahead of Madrid in la liga, surely they won't be caught now half way through the season.

They can't play couts in the CL so why spend 140m on him now?

It makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense for us to sell or for them to buy. Both clubs are well on track to meet their targets this season.

Bizarre.

WC and potential rising of the fee.....the quicker they can do it...the cheaper it will be....that's all this is, an exercise in price control.

If we accept 100 Million pounds plus add ons, it will be an absolute disgrace and I can see riots happening in Liverpool and in Boston.

Fucken cheap cu*ts!

 

Is riot Aussie slang for strongly worded twitter/email/facebook post! cos  ya won't get much more than that outta Boston mate.

Word.

Really weird that people are making a case for him being sh*t. He's levels above anything we have got and I struggle to think of many, if any, that are better at doing what he does.

So you'd keep him over Salah?

Just curious. Because we had Coutinho last year and weren't really any better off than we are this year and I'd argue if you took Salah out of this year's team....we'd be struggling mightily (where is if you take Coutinho out of this year's team....we're 7-1).

And I don't think ANYONE is saying he's  sh*t. I think people are saying he's not anywhere near worth 140m. He's good, maybe great at times, but it's not like he's Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo (or even Suarez for that matter).

WC and potential rising of the fee.....the quicker they can do it...the cheaper it will be....that's all this is, an exercise in price control.

So don't F***ing let them

We hold the cards

F**k you Barca. Absolute ballbags them

So don't f**king let them

We hold the cards

F**k you Barca. Absolute ballbags them

Except we then end up with a pissed off player who could upset the team spirit and cohesion, that is the factor which everyone seems to be ignoring, its not quite as simple as just saying you have a contract with us, so STFU and play.

Except we then end up with a pissed off player who could upset the team spirit and cohesion, that is the factor which everyone seems to be ignoring, its not quite as simple as just saying you have a contract with us, so STFU and play.

Is that what I said?

I said f**k Barca getting a favourable deal for them. We hold the cards

You want him? He has a 4 and a half year deal to run.
You want him? Well this is the fee

F**k them trying to get a cheap deal..

I couldn't give a f**k about Coutinho

But if he does stay? Till the summer? Let him down tools then and miss the wc

Sorry mate I want our club to stand up for itself and not get pushed around

Word.

Really weird that people are making a case for him being sh*t. He's levels above anything we have got and I struggle to think of many, if any, that are better at doing what he does.

I don’t think that’s what people are “meaning” to say Dave.

Everything becomes polarised once you put in black and white.

I think he’s terrific and I’d rather he wanted to stay.

He doesn’t and I don’t think he’s impossible to replace so F**k him off, rinse Barca and move on.

Even Kenny could be replaced.

Mind it took 25 years before that mental with the fu**ed up teeth that’d bite anything in arms reach ponied up......but that’s my thinking.