Philippe Coutinho

[Asura]

I have no idea why Barcelona need Coutinho, they could do without him actually this winter. He cant play in Champions league and the league title is almost Barcelona's barring a debacle so they should leave him alone and save such huge amount and try to get him cheaper in summer, if at all they really need him.

Barcelona does have the likes of Denis Suarez and Sergi Roberto who can play in a similar position, although not as experienced and in the same level as Coutinho but I believe they both are great players and should use them instead of getting coutinho

[LFCMadLad]

13 minutes ago, Asura said:

I have no idea why Barcelona need Coutinho, they could do without him actually this winter. He cant play in Champions league and the league title is almost Barcelona's barring a debacle so they should leave him alone and save such huge amount and try to get him cheaper in summer, if at all they really need him.

Barcelona does have the likes of Denis Suarez and Sergi Roberto who can play in a similar position, although not as experienced and in the same level as Coutinho but I believe they both are great players and should use them instead of getting coutinho

There’s rumours Barca are about to be slapped with a transfer ban which will start in the summer, hence why they are desperate to get Coutinho in now. 

[Smiley Culture]

29 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

There’s rumours Barca are about to be slapped with a transfer ban which will start in the summer, hence why they are desperate to get Coutinho in now. 

Yeah, that worked last time, didn’t it? They just flouted it and did what they wanted. They’ll complete deals now for the summer, I suspect, if what you say is true. 

[LFCMadLad]

9 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Yeah, that worked last time, didn’t it? They just flouted it and did what they wanted. They’ll complete deals now for the summer, I suspect, if what you say is true. 

I don’t know if it’s true or not to be honest mate, as a said, it’s just a rumour that’s flying around. 

They should be slapped with a nuke missile instead of a transfer ban in all honesty. 

[Stan]

He's already signed for Barcelona

[Burning Gold]

8 minutes ago, Stan said:

He's already signed for Barcelona

More reliable than 'reports in Spain' tbh

[SirBalon]

FC Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde has just this minute finished his pre-match Copa del Rey press conference in relation to the quarter-final clash against Celta Vigo to be played tomorrow.

As you can imagine the Spanish press went to work on him like they do on the players but he wasnt having any of it. Infact the press conference was cut short when he got up and walked away which is unusual for him due to being a very mild character. Every single question concerned the rumours on Coutinho possible move from Liverpool to Barcelona. 

He answered the first journalist (92 journalists attended and the most persistant were The Guardian, The Telegraph, SPORT and MARCA).

The question was always the same one... “Is Coutinho coming to Barça?”

This is his answer, his only answer today as nobody asked questions about tomorrows quarter-final Copa del Rey clash.

”You think you can do to me what you guys do to the players with these questions. Coutinho is a Liverpool player, he plays for them and is contracted to them. Ask Liverpool FC or ask someone else but not me. I have no idea what will happen now or in the future. Please have some respect for all involved.  I can only answer questions about my players.”

[Honey Honey]

That was a total "Kop" out

[Stan]

12 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

 

”You think you can do to me what you guys do to the players with these questions. Coutinho is a Liverpool player, he plays for them and is contracted to them. Ask Liverpool FC or ask someone else but not me. I have no idea what will happen now or in the future. Please have some respect for all involved.  I can only answer questions about my players.”

but Barca are all cunts obviously

[LFCMadLad]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

but Barca are all cunts obviously

He’s only batting the questions away now because Barcelona are deep into a tapping up investigation. Like everyone else at the club, for the past 12 months prior to this statement he hasn’t fucking shut up about Coutinho. 

Too little too late and all just a front. 

[SirBalon]

20 minutes ago, LFCMadLad said:

He’s only batting the questions away now because Barcelona are deep into a tapping up investigation. Like everyone else at the club, for the past 12 months prior to this statement he hasn’t fucking shut up about Coutinho. 

Too little too late and all just a front. 

I can’t believe I’m getting into this again... 

I’m no saying you’re wrong and I follow everything that goes in there. But I’ve obviously missed Valverde talking about Coutinho.  Can you remind me mate?

Plus if Barça are to be done for tapping, which they should do if they’ve done it, then you guys should be banned from signing too because you’ve been caught at it mate.

[LFCMadLad]

20 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I can’t believe I’m getting into this again... 

I’m no saying you’re wrong and I follow everything that goes in there. But I’ve obviously missed Valverde talking about Coutinho.  Can you remind me mate?

Plus if Barça are to be done for tapping, which they should do if they’ve done it, then you guys should be banned from signing too because you’ve been caught at it mate.

He was talking about him all summer mate, we went over it at the time. It was mainly around the time when Barcelona arranged Coutinho’s unveiling which obviously had to be cancelled. 

Ive never said we are perfect mate, there is a certain amount of ‘tapping’ in every transfer saga. But come on Balon, even you cannot deny that the lengths Barcelona go to when trying to unsettle a player is beyond ridiculous, hence why they are facing yet another transfer ban. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Holy shit someone affiliated with Barca acted with dignity and class in a transfer saga. Am I awake or in some sort of realistic simulation of my life? 

[LFCMadLad]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Holy shit someone affiliated with Barca acted with dignity and class in a transfer saga. Am I awake or in some sort of realistic simulation of my life? 

Rather than acting with dignity and class, it’s probably more likely that he was instructed to say nothing so not to further damage their case regarding their tapping up of players and total disregard for any other club on the planet. 

I just hope they receive a transfer ban that spans longer than the 2 windows they received last time. 

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, LFCMadLad said:

He was talking about him all summer mate, we went over it at the time. It was mainly around the time when Barcelona arranged Coutinho’s unveiling which obviously had to be cancelled. 

Ive never said we are perfect mate, there is a certain amount of ‘tapping’ in every transfer saga. But come on Balon, even you cannot deny that the lengths Barcelona go to when trying to unsettle a player is beyond ridiculous, hence why they are facing yet another transfer ban. 

There’s no such thing as a “certain amount of tapping” mate.  There’s either tapping or there isn’t. Plus talking about a player when asked questions during a press conference isn’t tapping, it’s unethical and a lack of respect. I don’t remember Valverde talking about Coutinho. 

[LFCMadLad]

3 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

There’s no such thing as a “certain amount of tappin” mate.  There’s either tapping or there isn’t. Plus talking about a player when asked questions during a press conference isn’t tapping, it’s unethical and a lack of respect. I don’t remember Valverde talking about Coutinho. 

Well he has, countless times. 

Anyway bollocks too it. 

[SirBalon]

Just now, LFCMadLad said:

Well he has, countless times. 

Anyway bollocks too it. 

Yeah... Forget this crap. I can’t believe all this rubbish anyhow. It’s become bloody boring. 

[HK85]

 

[Danny]

Liverpool fans should give it a rest now, Barce do talk about other teams players etc and has happened for years, but you've been caught tapping up your new centre back. Leave it alone 😂

[RandoEFC+]

In response to

Quite funny this whole saga to be honest.

[Happy Blue]

Lets face it, every transfer is a tap up these days, they go to the player or agent before putting a bid in to see if the player is interested first, even agree a contract   ...no point negotiating with a club if the player is not interested 

[SirBalon]

At the very start of this thread I said all top clubs do it and exactly what HB has just said... No point in going to the club first without knowing if the player actually wants the move.

What I do agree with Liverpool fans on is all the disrespectful and unethical talk coming from Barça in all of this which adds more pressure on everyone.  In many cases the way the press conduct themselves in Spain is largely  to blame but you can do what Valverde did yesterday (he’s been fined for it because it’s not permitted to just get up and leave a press conference) which is get up and go.

[LFCMadLad]

20 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

At the very start of this thread I said all top clubs do it and exactly what HB has just said... No point in going to the club first without knowing if the player actually wants the move.

What I do agree with Liverpool fans on is all the disrespectful and unethical talk coming from Barça in all of this which adds more pressure on everyone.  In many cases the way the press conduct themselves in Spain is largely  to blame but you can do what Valverde did yesterday (he’s been fined for it because it’s not permitted to just get up and leave a press conference) which is get up and go.

That’s been my gripe all along. It’s not the ‘tapping up’ so to speak as everyone knows, it happens all the time. It’s the constant proding by the Spanish media, the constant comments by the Barca players and the whole shit Barcelona go through to unsettle a player in order to get their man whilst trying to drive the price down. They make it almost impossible to keep a player that was before perfectly happy. 

Shithouse tactics and I’ve said that all along. 

[Burning Gold]

11 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

At the very start of this thread I said all top clubs do it and exactly what HB has just said... No point in going to the club first without knowing if the player actually wants the move.

What I do agree with Liverpool fans on is all the disrespectful and unethical talk coming from Barça in all of this which adds more pressure on everyone.  In many cases the way the press conduct themselves in Spain is largely  to blame but you can do what Valverde did yesterday (he’s been fined for it because it’s not permitted to just get up and leave a press conference) which is get up and go.

It doesn't need to be as drastic as storming out of a press conference, though. You can just refuse to answer the question. That's exactly what club employees and officials in this country do and our media works in exactly the same way. In fact, it's what officials and employees of almost every other club in Europe do, so blaming the media like this (yourself and Valverde) seems a little disingenuous. Outside of Barcelona I can't remember a single example of a club's players getting involved in a transfer saga, but somehow it's the media's fault? Credit to Valverde for not joining in, but come on.

[SirBalon]

31 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

It doesn't need to be as drastic as storming out of a press conference, though. You can just refuse to answer the question. That's exactly what club employees and officials in this country do and our media works in exactly the same way. In fact, it's what officials and employees of almost every other club in Europe do, so blaming the media like this (yourself and Valverde) seems a little disingenuous. Outside of Barcelona I can't remember a single example of a club's players getting involved in a transfer saga, but somehow it's the media's fault? Credit to Valverde for not joining in, but come on.

The media have a free reign in Spain mate... It’s completely different to the way it is here and you only have to follow high profile Spanish players on their social media accounts to see how many times they blast the media with their comments. Piqué does it a lot!  

I watched last night’s Copa del Rey press conference live and there were 92 journalists and when I say that every single one that asked a question only had the intentions of grabbing a headline revolving Coutinho, I am not lying.  He said “No comment!” To the first 6 or 7 questions which were all aimed at that and then said “Please give me questions about tomorrow’s game against Celta” to which he pointed to The Telegraph journalist because he must’ve though that an English journalist will have more respect... Nah! In pretty good Spanish the journalist asked the same question and Valverde moved onto MARCA where he then offered what I wrote further up.  He entertained about 7 or 8 more questions with “No comment!” and got up and left the press conference room... Even then the journalists were firing questions about Coutinho.

You can’t just get up and leave at every press conference because it will get to a point where there’s no point in doing them and the newspapers pay for the right to attend for material for their respective newspapers and news coverage on tv later on.  You are forced to answer and their is no vetting in Spain like there is in the UK where the respective club press officer sets the limits and they’re respected to a certain extent.  When I say that absolutely NO question was thrown at Valverde about the game tonight, I tell no lie!

But Yeah... Barça have been involved in this sort of thing before and the problem for me isn’t what players say in press conferences where they’re subjected to this sort of behaviour by the media.  For me the disrespectful issue is when club board members come out with statements when they are permitted to bypass that and still make a pressure remark as happened during the summer.

You can’t relate what occurs here to how things are done over there.  I remember Capello while coach at Real Madrid (his first stint) all those years ago going mental and saying he’d never experienced anything of the like before.  The same from other coaches... Bobby Robson being massacred by the press for information surrounding Ronaldo’s possible departure when he had been ordered by the club not to answer any questions surrounding that subject and he broke down and just answered the questions because back then you could be suspended from coaching from the sidelines if you broke the rules and walked out, not that Bobby Robson would ever walk out as he was too well mannered to do so.

Over there it’s  a different animal in this sense and it’s  why we get so many transfer rumours originating from Spain all the time.

I’m Not excusing anyone or anything where it’s unethical, just that not everything is what it seems at times although when you’re getting it over here all the time coming from over there I can understand that a mere fan isn’t going to try and ascertain how the comment was generated.