???️ COUTINHO SAGA

In football, like in any walk of life, you have the analogical sharks, and you have the analogical fish. Of course, in any case, it’s natural for the sharks to dominate their respective pond, and the size of the shark is proportional to the pond it’s in. Sorry, this is an analogy I’m going to stick with throughout this article, just a warning in advance. Because, the point I’m trying to make is that for me, it’s never really been clear if in modern-day football, Liverpool are sharks or fish. Unfortunately in recent years, we’ve definitely been the latter. Quality players have been eaten up by the ???sharks’ of European football. Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. Javier Mascherano and Luis Suarez to Barcelona. Fernando Torres to Chelsea. All these big players have gone to ???bigger’ clubs within the last 10 years. When compared to Southampton, we’re the biggest shark the world has ever seen. Yet, in proportion to the top clubs around Europe, we’re just another fish at the moment. However, things are looking good. The signs are there. Things are looking like they could change, and I think the way this transfer window concludes for us could be vital in whether we define ourselves as sharks or fish for years to come. Like I said, there have been some promising stories over the course of this summer so far that we could be evolving into a club that is something more than it has been in the past. We have the chance to show that we are club that is here to viciously compete in the transfer market not only in keeping their players, but buying too. Mo Salah was completed relatively early on, for £40million, great stuff. We’re being linked with top players from around Europe, the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Kylian Mbappe. We have made 2 confirmed bids of over £60million for Naby Keita, one of which was in the region of £70million. 70. Fucking. Million. That is completely unheard of from Liverpool. Never in the club’s history have we truly even considered spending that much money on one player, and yet here we are now. I’m not sure we are going to manage to pull the deal off before the window shuts, but that is by no means our own fault in this case. Leipzig are playing super-hard ball and that’s on them. We had our money ready to pay, and what a big step that is. The next step is quite simply, keeping hold of Philippe Coutinho this summer. In previous years, under Brendan Rodgers and Kenny Dalglish, we’d have sold Coutinho by now. We’d have accepted a shockingly low bid for him (£65million for Suarez? The man was worth double that) and he’d have been settled in at the Nou Camp chilling with Neymar at this point. But things are starting to change. Our manager is now a huge influential factor in keeping players at Anfield. Klopp has the pulling power to not only bring players in that may not have come before (Mo Salah anyone?), but also, I think he has the pulling power to keep Coutinho exactly where he is. And in my opinion, it all boils down to this little transfer saga. The club have to take a strong stance and ask themselves, ???are we going to stay strong and prove that are once again a heavyweight in world football? Or are we going to revert to recent type and sell yet another superstar we have developed to one of the clubs we aspire to be on par with?’ That’s the choice we face. And I honestly believe it will shape the success of the club for the next few seasons. I happen to believe that unlike Suarez, Coutinho is a replaceable player. For the money we could potentially receive, I think there are players out there that we could buy and slot into the team, and they would be a success. However, the principle here is what matters. There’s no need to replace Coutinho if we have the resistance to selling him in the first place. So, Jurgen and John W Henry, are Liverpool still fish? Or are we becoming sharks? Show us.