Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes that there will be a full-scale riot should Philippe Coutinho be allowed to leave by FSG in the current transfer window. The La Liga giants have been linked with a move for the Brazilian after the sale of Neymar and are willing to bid as much as £120million for the 25-year-old midfielder (Mirror).
Carra however, believes that Coutinho will not be sold at any price in this transfer window, though the Brazilian could remain a Liverpool player for just 12 more months.
Carragher was speaking on The Debate, a new Sky Sports show and was quoted as saying:
“I think he will stay. I think Liverpool will have him for 12 months.
“He will want to go. Who wouldn’t want to go? It’s Barcelona. Coutinho will want to wear that shirt and there’s nothing wrong with that.
“But I don’t think there’s any way Liverpool will sell him. Not a chance of him going. I think the owners are in a position where they can’t afford to let him go.”
The former defender also added that the window has not gone well for us and that we missed out on a couple of our major targets too.
“This window hasn’t been good for Liverpool. There would be a riot if he went – against the owners and against the club.
“It hasn’t gone how they wanted. They wanted (Virgil) van Dijk and they wanted (Naby) Keita.”
We Don’t Need The Money From Coutinho’s Sale
Carra also alluded to the fact that we don’t have to sell Coutinho for the money and our owners were willing to spend big to sign players.
“Liverpool don’t need money, they’ve got big money. Klopp hasn’t spent anything really since he came in terms of net spend. There’s a lot of money there for Liverpool to spend
“If Van Dijk becomes available then I think the owners will pay £50m or £60m for him. They would have paid £60m or £70m for Keita.
“They don’t need the money and I think they’ll get 12 more months out of Coutinho.”
The Englishman also added that even a fee of £100million would not be enough to get Coutinho as it would leave us with little time to replace the Brazilian.
“If someone had said at the start of the window or six months ago, £100m or £110m for Coutinho, you’d have said ‘that’s just too much money’.
“But in the current market who could you go and buy? You’ve got full-backs costing £50m or £60m.
“What is the point of Klopp or the owners being there if you’re going to continually sell your best players? You are there to be successful, Klopp isn’t just there to be top four.”
Carra is right regarding the window closing pretty soon and us not having enough time to replace Coutinho. However, the 12 month timeline for the Brazilian to leave does seem realistic but hopefully we can win some silverware this season and keep the 25-year-old for a few more years.
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