Liverpool have again underlined their determination to keep Philippe Coutinho by rejecting a deal worth up to €130m (£119m) from Barcelona for the unsettled Brazil international.
Barcelona’s third attempt to prise Coutinho from Anfield constituted a guaranteed €90m (£82.3m) plus a staggering €40m (£36.6m) in add-ons, an increase of €5m and €25m respectively on their previous offer. The Spanish club made an anticipated third bid on Friday having been encouraged by the transfer request the 25-year-old emailed to Liverpool’s sporting director, Michael Edwards, one week ago.
Coutinho’s transfer request followed a statement from Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, that declared the playmaker would be staying at Anfield beyond this transfer window. But his attempt to force a move, or the latest offer from the Camp Nou, has not altered FSG’s resolve to keep the Brazilian at the club.
As was the case with Coutinho’s transfer request, Barcelona’s initial offer of £72m and their second bid of £90m, Liverpool responded to Friday’s approach with another instant rejection.
Barcelona are willing to part with over half of the money they received from Paris Saint-Germain for Neymar in order to land his compatriot but, as the manager, Jürgen Klopp, has repeatedly stated and FSG has also clarified, Liverpool consider there is no deal to be discussed.
Pep Segura, Barcelona’s general manager, maintained in midweek that deals for Coutinho plus the Borussia Dortmund forward Ousmane Dembélé “are very close”. Segura’s comment, as with previous reports about Barcelona delegations flying into London to seal the Coutinho transfer, caused bewilderment at Liverpool where club officials have not entered into negotiations over a transfer or agreed to hold any.
Klopp believes Barcelona’s interest–though established before the end of last season – came too late in this transfer window for Liverpool to contemplate selling their influential playmaker. The Liverpool manager is also adamant his club do not need the money despite their own frustrations in attempting to sign Virgil van Dijk and Naby Keïta from Southampton and RB Leipzig respectively this summer.
The expectation at Liverpool is that, as with Luis Suárez in 2013, Coutinho will react professionally to their refusal to sell once the transfer window has closed. The alternative would be counter-productive for the Brazilian with a World Cup awaiting next summer.
Coutinho signed a new five-year contract at Liverpool last season and it contains no release clause. He has missed the start of the Premier League and Champions League season for Klopp’s side because of a back injury and will again be absent when Crystal Palace visit Anfield on Saturday.
The Liverpool manager admitted: “We are already having to change our plans to adapt to playing without Philippe Coutinho. Every team in the world would miss a creative player of his quality and his absence has changed the situation for us. When a key player is unavailable it is not good, but you have to deal with it.”
Liverpool, meanwhile, are convinced they have a new star in the right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold though Klopp has warned that the 18-year-old will have to be used sparingly despite his performance in the 2-1 Champions League play-off win against Hoffenheim in midweek.
Alexander-Arnold not only had the confidence to take a free-kick ahead of more senior team-mates, he also had the technique to bend the ball, confound the goalkeeper and put Liverpool ahead. While his display over the 90 minutes was not always at the same high level, it appeared Liverpool had found a natural solution to the problem of replacing Nathaniel Clyne, who thought he had recovered from a hamstring injury over the summer only to break down with a back problem when he attempted a return.
Although the England right-back may be out for a couple more weeks, Klopp is reluctant to keep plugging the gap with such a young player.
“He’s 18, I don’t think we can let him play five games in 14 days,” the Liverpool manager said. “He might want to, and he is certainly a big talent, but ideally you want to bring a player like that through gradually, then he is in a better situation to deal with the intensity of the games. “The Clyne situation makes things more difficult, because he had no pre-season and he was a player we did not think about too much because last season he was always available. With Nat fit we could have given Trent a few games here and there, but we don’t really know when he will be back.
“We thought we had sorted [Clyne’s injury] with all the experts, not just our own medical department, and that a rest and a summer programme would do the trick. But when he started again he was not right. That’s how medicine is, I have had similar experiences before.
“For us it is just one more situation which is not perfect but all we can do is work on it to try and find a solution. Trent is a good answer to the problem in the short-term but he still has a lot to learn. I would prefer him to be able to develop and make the odd mistake without being under so much pressure.”
Alexander-Arnold is likely to start against Crystal Palace at Anfield on Saturday, when the visitors, spearheaded by Christian Benteke, can be expected to give Liverpool’s weaknesses at set-pieces a thorough testing.
“We have been working on defending set-pieces, and I think the last game was better than the Watford game in that respect,” Klopp said. “If you concede a few goals from set-pieces it is bound to get noticed and talked about, I accept that, but this was the first match of the season and I am not about to rip up all my other plans just to concentrate on that one thing.”