Here are my thoughts on Liverpool’s future without the little magician…
My initial feeling is that Liverpool are losing one of the few world class players they have in the squad. It is with great sadness that he has chosen to depart Anfield but it is in the manner of which he chose to leave which was nothing short of disrespectful and the reason that many Liverpool fans now see him as just another player who has used the club for his own personal benefit.
When Coutinho left Inter to join Liverpool we basically rescued his career and turned him into what he is today. Were Barcelona interested when he left Italy or when he was playing close by on loan at Espanyol? The answer is no they were not.
He has treated by the club with utter contempt and feigned injury to get his move and what I will say is things that go around come back around so hopefully Karma will come back and bite him on his backside at some point in the future.
This current Liverpool squad has the capability to cope with his departure and I fully agree with the manager selling him now. People say but you don’t sell your best players in January but why would you want an unhappy player sulking around with little interest in playing for you? He has shown his true colours and unless you’re 100% pulling in the same direction as the rest of the squad then Jurgen will show you the door and rightly so.
On a replacement obviously Klopp wants Lemar and that is fine but I also would like to see a like for like player brought in such as Ever Banega, Matteo Kovacic or Adrian Rabiot brought in for their creativity and vision to replace what we are losing. The dream signing would be Marco Verrati from PSG but I don’t expect that to be happening in the near future.
I trust Jurgen to spend the money wisely and as shown previously he will wait if necessary to get his targets on board. In the meantime I suggest we all get behind the team and fully support the lads that want to be at the club with the best support possible.
YNWA