With a a club record transfer and a Merseyside Derby victory to discuss The Anfield Wrap isn’t short of material this week.
We start with off the field matters. Philippe Coutinho has gone to Barcelona and where does this leave Liverpool’s season? What should the next move be and what has brought this matters to this pass? To help us get the background on Coutinho and the club’s next move we’re joined by Paul Joyce, Northern Football Correspondent of The Times who has been very close to this story since the summer.
We then go on to remember the glory of Friday night, Liverpool and Virgil van Dijk delivering a knock out blow to Everton’s season while being far from their best. A sign of things to come or the end of an arduous Christmas period?
Neil Atkinson hosts and is joined by Rob Gutmann, Adam Smith and Dan Morgan. This is our flagship show and is available for free but we do 50 other shows a month which are premium content. To subscribe click here.
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Direct – Free Podcast: Cou Says Goodbye, van Dijk Says Hello
AdamSmith pretty much nailed it on everything, especially the coutinho stuff. MOM
I wont cry for you Phil Coutinho. The truth is i never loved you. You had a great through ball. Scored some class goals. You were a good lad but now you are no one.
Great pod that lads! Like you and most LFC supporters, the Coutinho transfer leaves a sour taste but Adam is spot on with the VVD observation that we’re all fucking hypocrites. You guys made some valid observations about what may or may not have happened had we tried to hang onto Phil until the summer. However, my biggest gripe is with the owners, not because they sold him but because we could/should have negotiated a better deal. PSG not long ago slapped a ridiculously large amount of money in one lump sum on Barca’s doorstep to prize away a player they desperately wanted. I think we could/should have squeezed more money out of that deal and made them pay the lot up front and forget about the add ons. Barca wasted no time at all announcing the £350M release clause in Phil’s contract which felt like they were wiping their knob on our curtains on the way out but fuck it, its done now…
We deffo need another creative or attacking player in this window for all the reasons you mentioned and I’m well up for all the names doing the rounds like Sanchez, Lemar, Mahrez or even trying to bring the Keita deal forward. I’ll throw a curveball name into the hat and I don’t think we’ve been linked with him since he won the league…Jamie Vardy? If there’s a chance we might lose Bobby Firmino (rightly or wrongly), Vardy most importantly bangs goals in…but he also works his bollocks off running the channels and chasing/dragging defenders about like his life depends on it, and I don’t think he gets injured much either? Vardy wouldn’t be on my 1st choice list but he isnt cup tied for Champions League and the TAW lads hinted at a possible leftfield signing?! A boss keeper would be nice too, so if Klopp does decide to stick with his attacking options until the summer then yeah, go and pay Oblak’s release clause and make everyone happy about the goalkeeping situation for the 1st time in a long time. Oblak between the sticks behind VVD would sort our defensive spine out a fucking treat!
Talking of VVD…welcome to Anfield lad! Sent the Blueshite home crying on his first day at the office and looked like he was cruising in 2nd gear!
Hey Lee
Interesting post and I agree with pretty much all of it.
Regarding the “hypocrites” thing … I’m not sure that’s right in this case. I personally think it’s fine to be pissed off with the behaviour of the player. It’s only hypocritical if we’re saying that Southampton fans don’t have the right to be just as pissed off with VVD.
I can see why Klopp and the club have given in but still think they may have made a mistake. As Neil points out, they’ve confirmed a future way forward for Barca & Real Madrid in the future should they want Salah, Mane etc. However, you can see the counter arguments that have been put forward. I don’t particularly blame Barca – we do very similar as do most/all clubs as and when they can.
So, in summary, I don’t have a massive issue with either club but I do have an issue with the player. I don’t wish him harm but none of this “best of luck to you” from me. I won’t be applauding him if he ever steps back onto the pitch at Anfield.
About Neil’s point on setting a precedent for future sales of our best players: it’s not as if Barcelona have never done this before. They did worse with Ousmane Dembele in the summer to get him and you could argue he’s the current precedent, and the only thing I can think of why Klopp wanted to sell now is that there was a real threat that Coutinho would escalate to that level. I agree the player is very much to blame but so is barca. The lengths they’re going to now to paint away the awful way they’ve gone about this is also nauseating. All clubs tap up but I don’t think many will argue that Barcelona’s ways are the hardest to stomach. I also think it’s a mistake to sell him now, so there must have been a very real risk that he’ll have a negative effect on the club between now and May. Unfortunately we’ll only find out in May if it was a mistake to sell him, and we’ll never find out if it would have been a mistake to keep him.
I am old enough to remember the shit that Keegan pulled on our great team, that was for money, Coutinho never was a REAL Liverpool player just a selfish Brazilian using the Reds for his own benefit. Good ridance.
Adam smith spot on here. Nightmare situation but we aren’t as big as we once were and it has to be realised,can’t say to Southampton fans oh we are taking van dijk and you’ll just have to like it then cry when coutinho wants to leg it to Spain. He’s looked miserable for the last 18 months to me anyway. Having said all that he’s handled it abysmally and I won’t grieve it.
Sliding door moment (VVD in and Couts out..) and we’ve had a few of them. (Suarez arriving and Torres leaving) .. makes one imagine if we’ve managed to keep our best players for a season of two what could be the potential…
Anyway, if we can use the funds to get a GK (Donnarumma ) from AC Milan and Pulisic from BVB, that would be superb.. Anything more would be a bonus.
Really good show. Get Adam on all of these, and Dan too.
The ‘South American/Latin to Barca/Madrid’ thing is a weird cliche. Every player aspires to play at the 2 biggest clubs, African, European, South American, whatever. This might shift with the rise of personal brands, such as Neymar going to PSG, but has long been the case. Phil will see this move as the deserved reward for what he’s been working toward his entire life.
This isn’t nice. Phil has become among the most productive players in Europe. I don’t doubt that we could eventually use the funds to make the team ‘more Klopp’. Transfers have broadly improved. But I absolutely doubt we can do this in a timely manner that doesn’t jeopardize this season, which in turn jeopardizes everything. Ever on the knife edge, Liverpool Football Club.
We’re never linked with Fekir for some reason.
I my dreams we buy a top top keeper this window – maybe Alisson? So Firmino gets another buddy to soften the blow of loosing Coutinho. Don’t think it will happen though
Late to the party, but I can just say the headline is a belter. Can’t read it without doing so to the tune.