re: tOfficial Liverpool 2017/2018 Thread: “Upgrades Incoming Edition: A Great Season!”

quote:

---

This was in the Sky transfer center. I'd be pretty bummed if we didn't work something out with him to stay.

---

quote:

---

“It’s really important in life that you value what you get - you think, we did good in this, were best in this, need to work on this”

---

quote:

---

Barcelona subsequently made a late attempt to sign the 25-year-old before the transfer window closed only for Liverpool to request a whopping €200m.

"After weeks of negotiations, yesterday Liverpool asked us for €200m for the player," Soler told a news conference on Saturday. "We will not put the club at risk.

"We have always worked with the mission not to put at risk the heritage and the viability of the club which is owned by the members.

"The fact that PSG came up with €222m [for Neymar] caused everyone to know that the club had money. When you go to the market and clubs know that you have a lot of money, the requests were exorbitant."

Barcelona technical director Robert Fernandez claimed Coutinho made a "big effort" to try to engineer a switch to Camp Nou.

"Liverpool were asking for €200m so logically we didn’t accept that," he said.

---

quote:

---

Dawn of the Superego: Liverpool’s Coutinho Stance Shifts Transfer Market Balance

---

quote:

---

The assumed air of Pep Segura’s declarations regarding Coutinho, days after the FSG statement of non-cooperation undermined the Liverpool owners. The manner of sabotage advising Coutinho to make himself unavailable ahead of Liverpool’s crucial Champions League Qualifier vs Hoffenheim went beyond the Barcelona custom of player-tapping. The irreverent means used by Segura was a slap in the face to his former employers. John W. Henry would not have any of that.

‘Legacy-building’ is a key-word the Fenway Sporting Group often use in their presentations. The resuscitation of the Boston Red Sox will be a time-honoured example of that in American sporting history. Their epic swindle with former British Airways CEO, Martin Broughton (who was in charge of finding sellers for Liverpool) saved Liverpool from the clutches of liquidation. Selling Coutinho, despite being in a position of strength would have sent all the wrong signals to an already on-edge fan-base, potential players, as well as the rest of Europeans sharks, and made dust of the foundations they have stood on.

The Coutinho no-sell has set the template for Champions League clubs to subvert player power. Liverpool have been victims of top players overriding contractual obligations in recent memory. The event sets a powerful precedent. For too long the club has been bullied into selling by agents. Liverpool, like others, are now beginning to exercise the powers of a contract, a team of lawyers, and the luxury of Champions League-shaped cash-cushion.

Wittingly/unwittingly, the move has also inspired RB Leipzig and Southampton to show the same kind of savvy staunchness. The clubs are beginning to wrestle back the narrative from the middle-men (something John Barnes predicted last year). Player power will take a downturn, as will agents’ fees. Liverpool could have reported Barcelona, but refusing to do business altogether sends a far more resounding reply, that may perhaps send ripples across Europe.

Agents now more than ever, will be more inclined to set up release clauses in improved contracts, which consequently, will allow the club to negotiate a figure that comes closest to their projected valuation of the player. In the current climate of market inflation, clubs stand the chance of being well-compensated. The knock-on effect could see agent fees the buying club pays during sign-on take a proportionable dive.

The Mes Que Un Club are slipping. The Neymar faux pas has exposed Barcelona’s warty underbelly. Liverpool has grudges to hold. It wasn’t beyond Barcelona to ask Javier Mascherano to go on strike. It wasn’t beyond the Catalans giants to offer a bite-sized advice to Luis Suarez to make his position at Liverpool impossible after the World Cup. It came as little surprise when Coutinho feigned injury. The most intriguing part of the Coutinho saga will begin when the player returns.

Egos need to be swallowed, mutually. It’s upto Phil Coutinho, the player who was given the Liverpool armband days before his e-mailed transfer request, to apologise and own up. It’s also (critically) important for Klopp to put an arm around the naive young man and make him realise that Barcelona couldn’t care less about his reputation.

Barcelona merely sees Coutinho as a passive instrument of the kind of institution they represent. Its well-being is dependant on the simple arithmetics of votes, trophies, tax dollars evaded, and not sentiment. Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool is home, Josep Bartomeu’s Barcelona is a sideshow with all the cheap tricks showing.

---