Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has recently stated that the club has no plans to sell Barcelona and Real Madrid target Philippe Coutinho
According to Andy Charles of Sky Sports, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has asked all the clubs interested in signing Philippe Coutinho to forget about him as the club has no intentions of letting go of their prized asset.
“We never had any ideas or plans or any talks about him leaving, because he is our player – there are no other ideas, nothing has changed,” Klopp said when quizzed about Coutinho’s future.
“It would be nice if big clubs forgot about a player completely because he’s been injured for five or six weeks. Big clubs don’t think in this way unfortunately. I’m not sure it’s like this though, but he is our player and that is it,” added the German.
Liverpool signed Coutinho as a 20-year-old for a bargain fee of £8.5 million from Italian giants Inter Milan. Since then, the Brazilian has grown from strength to strength to become one of the Reds’ key figures.
Coutinho has supplemented the Liverpool attack as he has registered at least five goals and as many assists in each of his last three seasons in the Premier League. This campaign, the Brazilian looks to be on a completely different level altogether, as he has played a direct role in 10 goals in 13 league appearances.
His returns, in turn, have Liverpool within touching distance of Chelsea atop the Premier League standings, who maintain a five point cushion over the Merseysiders. Coutinho has been out due to an ankle injury since the end of October, but is hopeful to recover in time for the weekend’s crunch encounter against age-old rivals Manchester United.
Despite his absence, Coutinho has continued to attract interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish duo are intent on adding to their attacking ranks and have eyed the Brazilian as the man to bolster their resolve in the final third.
However, with Klopp issuing them a hands-off warning, they will have to look elsewhere to find a viable attacker. This news will also come as great news to Liverpool fans as they saw striker Luis Suarez being lured away to Barcelona at the start of the 2014/15 season.
