Is Philippe Coutinho about to leave Liverpool?
Philippe Coutinho 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.
