Why are Man United and Liverpool suddenly on the market?
Liverpool are on the verge of completing the signing of Philippe Coutinho from French club Barcelona this summer. The deal will be a world record for club and player but there are also financial pressures. The price, of course, is €150 million and that’s a lot to pay for a player who hasn’t quite hit his full potential so far but will he be worth that kind of money in the summer?
Liverpool aren’t exactly the world’s most desirable football club, though the fans have to begrudgingly accept that. Liverpool were runners-up to Manchester City in last year’s FA Cup and last season were the Champions of Europe – a competition in which Liverpool only managed a single point. Now there is even more pressure.
On the pitch at the moment, Liverpool are third in the Premier League, just 4 points behind Arsenal. That’s a disappointing return for one of the richest clubs in the world, no doubt about it. Liverpool haven’t even matched their league tally from the previous campaign when they won the double.
Since then, Liverpool have fallen back to 7th in the table and are only 1 point ahead of struggling Aston Villa – still their fifth top six finish since the turn of the year, though still their best run since the 2014-15 season. But this run in the top six hasn’t been quite as productive as it could have been.
Even Liverpool’s top goalscorer Daniel Sturridge is out now with a hamstring injury and they had a disappointing season last year.
While Liverpool haven’t quite been able to compete for silverware in their last year with Brendan Rodgers as manager they’ve been in the top four for the last two seasons. If Liverpool have any chance of avoiding the drop in this current campaign they’ll need to start doing better on the pitch as the main attraction while the club remains desperate to find a way of keeping their best players.
There are the usual demands on the transfer kitty, though it would no more than the 20 million euros Liverpool have already spent on
