Philippe Coutinho is not in the Liverpool squad for their New Year’s Day trip to Burnley.
Fear not though, Reds. This is not to say the Brazilian’s busy stuffing his belongings into a bag and booking a flight to Barcelona. Not yet, anyway.
After being strongly linked with a move to the Camp Nou all summer, speculation linking Coutinho to Barca has returned in recent days (if it ever actually went away, that is).
First, some suggested Liverpool only agreed to stump up £75m for Virgil Van Dijk because they were soon to receive a substantial amount of money in exchange for Coutinho. Days on from this, there was the bizarre episode in which Nike – Barcelona’s official kit supplier – appeared to preemptively announce that Coutinho would be finalising his move to La Liga on their website.
Reports in Brazil have now claimed that Liverpool intend to sue the sportswear giant for their error.
Although there is very little else – and certainly nothing official – to suggest Liverpool would be willing to let the player leave in the January window, the news that Coutinho was not in the squad to face Burnley was enough for plenty of supporters to jump to conclusions.
Today's #LFC side to face Burnley at Turf Moor…https://t.co/SljSS8z9x4 pic.twitter.com/3zckrTkKts
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 1, 2018
Coutinho is said to be out of the game at Turf Moor due to a thigh problem, though not everyone appears convinced…
Bye bye Coutinho
— Joey (@Joey_CFC) January 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/HackStuart/status/947833309920419840
I take it this is a sign coutinho is going? Don’t drag it on just tell us fans the truth
— tyler birnie (@birnie_tyler) January 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/PPerfect_CJ/status/947843494156099585
https://twitter.com/mustafakosal7/status/947842502287126528
