Philippe Coutinho has struggled in a big way since leaving Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Philippe Coutinho was happy to stay at Liverpool in 2018.
The Brazilian maestro left the Reds to join Barcelona in a £142 million deal a little over two years ago.
But things haven’t gone well for Coutinho, who had a mixed first 18 months at Camp Nou and is now on loan with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.
In contrast, Liverpool have reached two Champions League finals without the 27-year-old, winning one, and are on the brink of winning the Premier League for the first time in their history.
In leaving, Coutinho burned his bridges with a lot of Liverpool supporters, after it was reported that he went on strike to force the Reds’ hand.
But the German manager has told The Pure Football podcast that the former Inter Milan playmaker was content to stay on Merseyside if an agreement couldn’t be reached.
He said: “He was open to that [staying] and that was really cool. Then you have to be fair in the window and say we can do it, we don’t like it but we can do it.”
It’s a classic case of the grass not always being greener on the other side.
Interestingly, Coutinho has been linked with a move back to the Premier League, with the likes of Tottenham, Arsenal and Leicester City among those linked.
There have also been murmurs over the past year that a return to Liverpool could be on the cards, but that looks very unrealistic at this point.
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