Jürgen Klopp on Transfer Spending and Philippe Coutinho

Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich. All have, according to reports, been offered the chance to sign Philippe Coutinho this summer. And one imagines that if they have, so too have Liverpool.

It seems a safe assumption, given Barcelona’s desperation to offload the Brazilian and Coutinho’s agent’s previous talk of there only being one club in England he could play for. Jürgen Klopp, though, would neither confirm nor deny it.

“No answer,” was all that the Liverpool manager would say when pressed on whether the club had been offered the opportunity to bring Coutinho back to Anfield this summer. “We don’t make comments on these things.”

Most, perhaps, will take that non-answer as confirmation of sorts—after all, if Coutinho’s return hadn’t at least been a possibility, the player offered and discussed, one might expect the Liverpool boss to simply say so and to then move on.

Klopp was similarly non-committal when it came to more general questions about the club’s activity—or lack thereof—in the transfer market this summer, but he did tell any fans waiting on a deadline day deal not to get their hopes up.

“It’s the same answer,” said Klopp when asked about the chance of a surprise late signing before the window closes. “It is not very likely for us to do something. I think Everton are more busy. So if you have something else to do, go and do it.

“Our window was always about checking options, thinking about it, making decisions. This is how we do it, always. If nothing happens then it was not the right option for us. We won’t make signings just to sign somebody, that’s it.