The Brazilian has been less than unequivocal in distancing himself from a move to Barcelona this summer.
Asked while on international duty about the possibility of joining his former Liverpool team-mate Luis Suarez at Barcelona, the 25-year-old Brazilian wouldn't even mention his current club by name.
“Talking about this is complicated,” he said. “I have a contract with my club and it is long.
“So my focus is on the present and the national team. My focus is here.”
Anybody with even the remotest of knowledge of football's greatest euphemisms will see this as the start of Coutinho's divorce from the Premier League.
It's not been a happy summer so far for Jürgen Klopp's side, who seemed to be on the brink of landing Virgil van Dijk from Southampton before the Saints went crying to the Premier League, accusing the Merseyside club of tapping up the Dutch international defender.
With that deal now (seemingly) dead in the water, and Liverpool having also failed to prize Mohamed Salah from Roma, it's shaping up to be an awkward summer ahead of the club's return to the Champions League in the autumn.
This week on your favourite horse racing podcast, The Paddock, we’re joined by Oli Bell, Rishi Persad, Tom Stanley and a post-Cheltenham Dan Skelton. The panel dives straight into a festival debrief, including Dan’s winners at the festival and UK trainers closing the gap on Ireland. Dan also takes us through the not so small […]
It’s been described as ‘The Voice’ for football A European football team has turned to launching a competition to sign an amateur footballer after being banned from making transfers. It’s the nightmare scenario for many clubs, being banned from signing any players which can be a death sentence for many clubs in modern football. While […]
This week on your favourite horse racing podcast, The Paddock, we’re joined by Oli Bell, Rishi Persad, Tom Stanley and a post-Cheltenham Dan Skelton. The panel dives straight into a festival debrief, including Dan’s winners at the festival and UK trainers closing the gap on Ireland. Dan also takes us through the not so small […]