Covering the Philippe Coutinho saga, the annoyance of the Catalan media with Liverpool was clear and quite absurd at times.
Dismissed as a selling club on more than one occasion, Liverpool simply weren’t given the respect their status in world football should bring. Or, actually, given the respect any football club should get when it comes to keeping hold of their best players.
Jurgen Klopp having the temerity to block a sale saw the German manager receive all kinds of crticism from the Barcelona media, and there were some quite childish reactions. When Liverpool were looking to sign Thomas Lemar, there were claims in Spain that Barca could get him instead of Coutinho, cutting their nose off to spite their face.
Last summer there were also reports Barcelona could try and ruin Liverpool’s plan to sign Naby Keita from RB Leipzig. Basically, Liverpool needed teaching a lesson.
Maybe we’re being unkind to Sport, but there seems some bitterness in a Thursday snippet they have about Sadio Mane. Three goals in a Man of the Match performance against Porto have seen Mane celebrated around Europe, but Sport, a Catalan newspaper, have their own slant.
‘Sadio Mane, the failed alternative to Coutinho
Sadio Mane lived one of his great nights after scoring three of the five goals from Liverpool to Porto. Only a few months ago, the Senegalese forward was in the spotlight of FC Barcelona. Given the reluctance of Liverpool to get rid of Coutinho, a report from the Barca technical secretariat recommended to keep an eye on Mane. It was discarded.’
What’s all that about? It seems a strange dig of saying Barcelona could have had him, Liverpool would have faced that difficulty had they not agreed to the Coutinho sale, but then they didn’t want him anyway.
That’s, erm, Liverpool told then.
