Rumour Mongering: Liverpool, Everton, and Newcastle Hold Coutinho Interest

Things continue to not go particularly well for Philippe Coutinho at Barcelona, with the arrival of new manager Xavi not having done anything to change the former Liverpool star’s status for the financially floundering Catalan club.

So once again, with the January transfer window near, he is on the chopping block, at least according to the rumour mongers in Spain. As for who might be in line to sign him, the clubs mentioned are Newcastle, Everton, and the Reds.

Liverpool have been linked with Coutinho pretty much from the day they sold him to the La Liga side in 2018, and each and every time there has been no real reason to believe Jürgen Klopp has any interest in bringing him back to the club.

While Coutinho has spent the past four years seeing his stock head in the wrong direction, Liverpool have moved on and established themselves as one of the best clubs in the world—and certainly one that’s currently clear of Barcelona.

What purpose a player who struggles to make Barca’s eleven and is seen as surplus to requirements while being on hefty wages and four years older than when he left would serve for the Reds seems a question with an obvious answer.

In short, he would serve no purpose. Newcastle, struggling to escape the relegation zone and flush with cash after becoming the public relations wing of a human rights-abusing petrostate, on the other hand, could make sense.

So too could an Everton closer to the relegation places than the European places. It’s Newcastle, though, that would seem most plausible—as long as Coutinho doesn’t mind that he’d likely end up a very well paid Championship player.

What we’re comfortable saying at this point, though, is that no matter what the likes of Mundo Deportivo say, the now 29-year-old Brazilian playmaker won’t be returning to Liverpool, not this January and not in the summer.