Klopp on Coutinho rumours: ‘As a manager, if we sell a player or don’t sell him then I have to accept it’

Sometimes it is the ones you least expect and anyone who has met Philippe Coutinho will know the Brazilian comes over as a sweet and simple kid. Well-mannered. Boyish. Hardly a boat-rocker, or chain-yanker, or thrower of grenades.

The kind who marries their childhood sweetheart, is covered in tattoos thanking God and family, that in a game versus Manchester City was inspired to a great display by a letter from his mum.

Someone no other player has a bad word for, who proclaimed genuine love for Merseyside, once laughing to this writer that Scousers are surely the South Americans of England. All of that is why an extra sting was felt at Melwood when an email landed with Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s sporting director, on Friday.