A return to the Premier League is possible for Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho, with Gunners, Spurs, Leicester City and Everton all linked so far.
Tottenham Hotspur and Everton target Philippe Coutinho has endured a ‘decline similar to Alexis Sanchez’ since joining Barcelona in 2018, former England international Alan Hudson has told Caught Offside.
During a hectic January 2018 transfer window, two of the biggest names in world football joined two of the biggest clubs in world football. But, if both players could turn back the clock, they might have had second thoughts about agreeing to moves which would hardly go to plan.
Sanchez is arguably the biggest and most expensive flop in Manchester United’s modern history. And while Coutinho has fared slightly better in Catalonia, it’s fair to say the £142 million millstone has not quite lived up to that staggering price-tag in the red and blue of Barcelona.
BleacherReport claims that the former Liverpool talisman would jump at the chance to return to the Premier League this summer, with Spurs, Leicester City and former Merseyside rivals Everton expressing an interest in the £240,000-a-week misfit. Arsenal, Sanchez, former employers were also linked via The Sun.
Though former Gunners, Stoke and Chelsea hero Hudson is keen to point out that those glory days at Anfield are a long time ago now.
“I think there’s been something wrong with him since leaving Liverpool, where he was sensational,” says one of English football’s true mavericks, who has tipped Chelsea to overlook the chance to bring Coutinho to Stamford Bridge.
“The questions far outweigh the answers, and for me his form has been in a decline similar to Alexis Sanchez after leaving Arsenal.”
A player with undoubted technical ability, the direction modern football is taking appears to have left Coutinho in the lurch.
A la James Rodriguez, old-school attacking midfielders of this ilk appear to be finding themselves out of favour in an era of sweat-shedding, box-to-box dynamos.
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