It turns out the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. As Anfield says goodbye to one Brazilian star of the Jurgen Klopp era on Saturday, another will be conspicuous by his absence.
Philippe Coutinho will probably be relieved about that, in all honesty. Because while Roberto Firmino, his great pal, will receive the kind of send-off reserved for true Liverpool greats, a return to Merseyside for Coutinho this weekend would serve only to remind the Aston Villa man of what he could have won, and of how far his stock has fallen in the last five years.
At 30, these should be the prime years of his career, but instead Coutinho finds himself fighting against a rising tide, injured and out of favour at Villa, and unable to capture even some of the form which made him one of the world’s most sought-after, and most expensive, players at Liverpool.
Where, as they say, did it all go wrong?
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