Jurgen Klopp has opened up on Philippe Coutinho's transfer from Liverpool to Barcelona and shed new light on the £142million switch
Back in January 2018, Brazilian midfielder Coutinho made it clear he wanted to join the Catalan giants, and seemingly did everything in his power to force through the move.
In fact, Coutinho was interested in joining Barcelona in the summer window but Liverpool dug their heels in, apparently in the hope that the midfielder would change his mind.
When January came around though, Coutinho hadn't changed his mind, and even went to the effort of handing in a transfer request - via email, which rubbed many up the wrong way - to ensure his dream transfer occurred.
Liverpool eventually granted the request, and Coutinho left Anfield behind for a new life in Spain with La Liga giants Barcelona.
Liverpool boss Klopp has spoken out on the transfer from two years ago on the Pure Football Podcast, in which he opened up on what really went on behind the scenes at Liverpool.
"I really respected Phil's switch from the first second," said Klopp.
"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.
"That's not possible, you cannot solve that on the transfer market.
"He 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, we don't like it but we can do it."
In fact, Coutinho was interested in joining Barcelona in the summer window but Liverpool dug their heels in, apparently in the hope that the midfielder would change his mind.
When January came around though, Coutinho hadn't changed his mind, and even went to the effort of handing in a transfer request - via email, which rubbed many up the wrong way - to ensure his dream transfer occurred.
Liverpool eventually granted the request, and Coutinho left Anfield behind for a new life in Spain with La Liga giants Barcelona.
Liverpool boss Klopp has spoken out on the transfer from two years ago on the Pure Football Podcast, in which he opened up on what really went on behind the scenes at Liverpool.
"I really respected Phil's switch from the first second," said Klopp.
"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.
"That's not possible, you cannot solve that on the transfer market.
"He 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, we don't like it but we can do it."
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