Gerard Pique wants current Barcelona team-mate Coutinho to ‘be happy’ following news that the Catalan giants will allow Phil a loan move away from Camp Nou this summer.
The Telegraph state that Barca will ok the playmaker’s exit, provided a club, likely from the Premier League, pay an extravagant £21m loan fee.
“I don’t know. Obviously I want him to stay but at the end of the day it’s what he wants & I want him to be happy,” Pique told ESPN. “Let’s see. Until the last day of the transfer market we will not know if he stays or not. But it’s not my decision, it’s the club’s and Philippe’s.”
Liverpool have just loaned out Harry Wilson to Bournemouth for the campaign, meaning our attacking options behind the front-three are beyond slim.
We have Divock Origi, who, although a genuine Liverpool legend following his feats last season, is not brilliant – and Rhian Brewster – who has not played a single minute of senior, competitive football in his career.
Then there is Xherdan Shaqiri and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, both of whom can play wide – but cannot be described as forwards and will not provide goals.
We’d take Coutinho back in a heartbeat, but our underlying understanding is that Liverpool will not.
In fairness to the club, they wanted to keep Phil, told him he would never get it as good elsewhere, and they were right. Not allowing him the return he obviously would jump at proves a tough, but important point.
Liverpool are not a stepping stone.