Philippe Coutinho is a reported Arsenal target and if the Gunners have any reservations about signing the Barcelona outcast then their fears can be allayed by one of his former managers.
Drawing from reports, the north London outfit are among Philippe Coutinho suits in the upcoming January transfer window. The Barcelona players is leaning towards a switch to Arsenal, with Mikel Arteta’s side said to match both his ambitions and wage demands.
Coutinho joined Barcelona in January 2018 from Liverpool in a £145million deal. But his three years at the Nou Camp have been largely underwhelming.
The 29-year-old is currently deemed surplus to requirements by newly-appointed Barca boss Xavi. However, Arteta shouldn’t have any concerns about his professionalism according to Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp was the Brazil international’s manager for just over two years at Liverpool and speaking about the playmaker last year he was effusive in his praise.
He said, “I really respected Phil’s switch [to Barcelona] from the first second. 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.’