Philippe Coutinho Return To Liverpool Unlikely According To Pearce

There is a segment—small but vocal—among the Liverpool faithful that thinks Philippe Coutinho should return to Liverpool. There is yet another segment—large and extremely vocal—among the mainstream punditry class that thinks Philippe Coutinho should definitely return to Liverpool. And you’re delusional if you think otherwise!

Opinions are one thing. But evidence? Evidence tells a different story. All evidence, on and off the pitch, points to the fact that Coutinho is far, far from the minds of Liverpool executives (and Michael Edwards’ Laptop of Destiny).

On the pitch, Liverpool never looked back from the transfer, playing their way to consecutive Champions League finals, a 97-point runner-up league campaign, and a 22-point lead in this campaign.

Off the pitch, the Coutinho money directly led to the funding of key players—players that helped Liverpool go on the aforementioned incredible run for the last two years—including world-class goalkeeper Alisson Becker. CEO Peter Moore recently said as much.

As if the CEO saying that Liverpool had “moved on” from Coutinho wasn’t enough, in comes club-connected journalist James Pearce to give his two cents.

“Klopp is an incredibly loyal manager but he expects that loyalty to come back the other way and I think he felt he didn’t have that with Coutinho,” Pearce said on The Red Agenda podcast for The Athletic.

“I think some people have short memories of how badly he behaved.”

Pearce was careful not to cite any club personnel or give any direct quotes. However, he clearly has some insight into the feelings about Coutinho, and his departure, around the club. This insight, seemingly, goes right to the top. Or rather, right to the Klopp.

The “we need to bring Coutinho back” crowd are not likely to be dissuaded by any of this recent evidence that Liverpool are not at all interested. If two years of the best football we’ve seen on Merseyside in decades isn’t enough evidence, I’m not sure what will persuade this crowd.

Instead, the club will be looking to sign the next attacking superstar.