Why the real Philippe Coutinho can only return when he feels a sense of belonging

Largely unwanted by Barcelona and having not done enough at Bayern Munich, the uncertainty the Brazilian so carefully tried to sidestep clouds his career again

A composite of Philippe Coutinho at Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Barcelona (Getty)

On a hideous afternoon in May 2015, Philippe Coutinho switched between surveying the rain pelting down on Melwood’s pitches and the tattoos on his arms that act as a shrine to his family. There was a stillness about him, a surety in knowing that his personal storm in a professional sense was over.

For an hour, the Brazil international retraced his life story, starting with his formative years in the shadow of the iconic Maracana stadium up to the point of being considered Liverpool’s “gold dust.”

There were two dominant themes to his collection of memories: a debt of gratitude to his loved ones and his need for belonging.

Coutinho swayed between remembering how he cried during his first trial with Vasco, running to his father Jose Carlos Correia in the stands, to being overwhelmed when an ‘O Magico’ banner debuted on the Kop in his honour.

The journey between those two junctures was framed by uncertainty: Was he good enough to be a professional footballer? Would he be worth Inter Milan paying £3.5 million for him at 16 to secure his services two years later? Could he settle in Italy? Would he ever become a regular for the Serie A giant? Did he do enough while on loan at Mauricio Pochettino’s Espanyol to convince any European club – let alone his parent one – that he could greatly improve their XI?

Coutinho’s six months in La Liga convinced Liverpool to make him their priority target for the playmaker role and once his £8.5m switch to Merseyside was confirmed in January 2013, the question marks around his purpose quickly disappeared.

Philippe Coutinho joined Liverpool in January 2013 (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

In that room stationed off the canteen in the upper tier of the training complex, the No.10 could finally speak about “a touching connection,” being at “the right place” and “feeling appreciated” five years after leaving Rio de Janeiro’s North Zone to make it big in Europe.

Fast forward and five years later, the uncertainty Coutinho so carefully tried to sidestep has returned to cloud his career.

Barcelona’s record signing, recruited from Anfield for £142m in January 2018, is largely unwanted at Camp Nou. Bayern Munich, who loaned him for the season last summer, have no intention of making the deal permanent.

For 12 months, he has been offered around the Premier League but Liverpool have moved on, Arsenal cannot afford him and Chelsea – the most persistent recent link – have signed Ajax’s Hakim Ziyech and aren’t particularly in need of a player of his profile.

The precarious situation Coutinho finds himself in is further complicated by the financial impact of Covid-19 on football. No club can be sure of anything right now, let alone whether they can absorb his enormous wages of around £240,000 a week or a substantial transfer fee. Even if his asking price is massively reduced, it will still be upwards of £75m which is a significant outlay in any window, more so during a hindered one.

Barca, where players have accepted a 70% reduction to pay to ease the economic burden of the crisis, may have to begrudgingly keep Coutinho given all the unknowns.

Coutinho left Liverpool for Barcelona in January 2018 (Getty Images)

He has powerful allies in Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, but is unpopular there and knows it. The hierarchy do not care much for him, having realised he is not Andres Iniesta incarnate as was imagined, while supporters have publicly berated him.

This was not how Coutinho’s tale was meant to unfold. There is an erroneous belief that the Brazilian skipped out on Liverpool at the first real opportunity he had, but his camp was instructed to rebuff strong advances from Paris Saint-Germain on three occasions: the summer of 2016, January the following year and then before Neymar’s head-spinning switch to the French capital, which reshaped the transfer market and paved his path to Barca.

La Liga’s champions had spent close to four years loosely and then intensively putting themselves in pole position to lure Coutinho. Neymar had started their charm offensive, which was carried on and heightened by Luis Suarez.

Despite continued pressure from both PSG and the Catalans, Coutinho signed a new five-year contract sans a release clause with Liverpool in January 2017, which made him the highest-paid player at the club. He was measured: neither the timing nor the circumstances were right to exit Anfield, but that altered during the club’s tour of Hong Kong six months later.

Before making an opening bid of £72m for Coutinho on July 21 that was instantly rejected, Barca had outlined a persuasive long-term vision for the midfielder that positioned him as the leader of a regenerated team. With Neymar departing, Iniesta on his way out, Messi and Suarez ageing, he was sold the conclusion of becoming their reference point.

That evening at the Ritz-Carlton in West Kowloon, Klopp met with Coutinho about the rejected offer and Barca’s interest. The player was honest: he was happy at Liverpool, he was grateful for his advancement at the club, but he was being pitched the career opportunity of a lifetime. Barca didn’t just want to sign him, they wanted to build the team around him. Significantly, his family wanted him to move.

Coutinho’s parents uprooted their lives and joined him in Milan to help him settle at Inter. His wife, Aine, was just 17 when she sacrificed everything to be with him in Europe. His older brothers Cristiano and Leandro took care of all his admin in Rio so he could focus solely on football. The most important people in Coutinho’s life were united in wanting him to seize the chance to call Camp Nou home. It wasn’t just about the football club, but enjoying a culture and lifestyle closer to their own, a point which Suarez stressed.

Coutinho was constantly told of his ‘Barca DNA’ and how the transfer was a ‘no-brainer.’

He believed it. He was sure, so sure that be betrayed his own wishes not to get antagonist in forcing the move to morph into all-out war mode as evidenced by the timing of his transfer request, a convenient back injury and an initial refusal to play Champions League games if he was not allowed to leave.

Coutinho doesn’t appear to have done enough to stay at Bayern (AFP/Getty)

Sources close to the 27-year-old single out two factors they feel tainted the “perfect” transfer: the manner of how things soured on Merseyside and the fact he had to wait six months to join Barca, which only ballooned the pressure, expectations and stress.

Coutinho provided glimpses of his capabilities for Ernesto Valverde’s side – against Tottenham in Europe, in a 5-1 Clasico victory over Real Madrid – but he felt more of a decoration rather than a decisive player. He didn’t command a position in the 4-3-3, either centrally or wide, ceded confidence and lost the fans.

After being a target of regular criticism he responded to scoring in a Champions League win over Manchester United a year ago by facing Barca supporters and putting his fingers in his ears.

The writing was on the wall and the club spent all summer failing to shift him only for Bayern to offer a late, temporary escape route after their pursuits of Leroy Sane and Callum Hudson-Odoi were curtailed.

Coutinho has glistened in Munich, but not with enough regularity or conviction. As the club’s chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge noted in February: “I think he played well in some games, while in others he gave the impression of being a little inhibited.”

That is not surprising. Coutinho’s career illustrates that his sorcery is linked to a sense of belonging.

It’s now over two years since he’s had that element he so craves, which unfortunately does not look like returning anytime soon and puts him in the eye of the storm again.