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Liverpool delayed Philippe Coutinho Barcelona transfer because of Adam Lallana
Liverpool sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in January 2018 but could have cashed in at an earlier date if it wasn't for Adam Lallana.
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Liverpool delayed the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona because of Adam Lallana. Jurgen Klopp has shed new light on the Brazilian’s £142million move to the Nou Camp two and a half years after sanctioning the deal. Coutinho was the main man at Anfield but has seen his career stall since the mega-money switch.
Liverpool boss Klopp was aware it would be almost impossible to keep Coutinho away from the Nou Camp after catching wind of their interest.
The Anfield chief was reluctant to stand in his way but had lost Lallana to injury so ordered the attacking midfielder to stick around.
The January transfer window of 2018 eventually rolled around and Coutinho was allowed to leave.
While Klopp was disappointed to lose Coutinho, he was delighted by the player’s attitude while waiting for the switch.
Speaking to Pure Football Podcast, Klopp said: "I really respected Phil's switch from the first second.
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"Not that I do that all the time but it felt ‘oh wow that could be difficult’.
"So it's not about yes we signed a new contract so many weeks before that, but it was really clear he would not have asked me for any other club but for this club, there was no chance.
"Then we had to be hard in the summer because we had no other solution. We lost Adam Lallana [to injury] in that time as well, we would have lost two players.
"[So] That's not possible, you cannot solve that on the transfer market.
"He [Coutinho] was open to that [staying] and that was really cool.
“Then you have to be fair in the window and say we can do it.
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"We don't like it but we can do it."
Coutinho initially flourished at Barcelona but found the going tough in his first full campaign, despite the team retaining their La Liga crown.
He was shunted out on loan to Bayern Munich last summer for the 2019/20 campaign but the Bundesliga big boys have no interest in retaining his services on a permanent basis.
A return to Liverpool has been ruled out but Klopp is full of respect for his former player.
“Phil was our boy for a long time,” he added. “We respect him a lot and wish him all the best.
"That's how football should be. That's the most important thing the club showed in that moment."