Liverpool boss has boldly insisted that Brazilian superstar Philippe Coutinho is going nowhere in the summer and has issued a hands-off warning to his suitors. Jurgen Klopp seemed relaxed about Coutinho’s future and jokingly said that he would place a huge £400million release clause in his contract (wish he was not joking though).
Coutinho signed a new contract with Liverpool back in January, worth about £150,000-a-week. He seemed delighted with that and has always insisted that he is happy to be at Liverpool. At the time of signing the contract, Coutinho said to the club’s official website,
“I am very happy to sign a new contract here. It is a club that I am very grateful to and this shows my happiness here. I will work much harder to repay the belief shown in me. I signed this new contract to stay here for a few more years because it’s a great honour for me. It gives me great happiness because I was welcomed here with open arms by everyone at the club and the supporters right from my first day. I am very thankful to this football club for everything.”
Clearly, those are not the words of an unhappy player by any means! However, Klopp has now, for his part, reassured that the club are not going to sell the players who they want to keep hold of.
Klopp was quoted by the Liverpool Echo,
“When did he sign his new contract? So that would be a nice idea. With a £400million clause! (laughs). There are absolutely no plans. What our owners say is there is the absolute opportunity not to sell anybody if we do not want to. That means we can bring in others players and it is a good situation. We have a stable squad with a good basis. We want to bring a few in with fresh blood, but nobody will leave us without our say so I am completely relaxed about this.”
This sounds nice, doesn’t it? The manager being so confident about his player’s future and playing down the speculations in a cool and composed manner. This should surely put off Coutinho’s potential suitors.
The way Coutinho has played for Liverpool, he is so important and the Reds simply cannot afford to lose the key man. Liverpool did well to get a major coup when they signed him from Inter in 2013 and the young Brazilian has grown massively. The Liverpool team has been built around him and removing him would cause some serious damage.
