Philippe Coutinho failed with Barcelona move after Thomas Muller refused to be Liverpool replacement
PHILIIPPE COUTINHO is stuck at Liverpool because they could not convince Thomas Muller to leave Bayern Munich for Anfield, according to reports in Germany.
Bild claim to have unearthed how the summer’s longest transfer saga ended up with almost everyone looking unhappy.
The Brazil star is stuck on Merseyside instead of the beach of Barceloneta, while Liverpool know they have an unhappy playmaker as well as a porous defence.
And Barca missed out on their No 1 target and now have back-up signing Ousmane Dembele out injured with a hamstring problem.
It sounds like the only person who has come out of the extended negotiations smiling is Germany goal machine Muller.
The 28-year-old was targeted by Jurgen Klopp as the perfect replacement for Coutinho.
But the World Cup winner was dead against the move and his refusal to consider a switch to Anfield.
And Liverpool fans look to be the most unhappy of all with Coutinho in limbo and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain having a nightmare start to his Kop career.
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Coutinho lasted just 45 minutes of Liverpool’s miserable 2-0 League Cup defeat to Leicester City on Tuesday night.
It was 0-0 when the Samba star was hooked but his side suffered another defeat after the break and were condemned to another worrying loss.
And Klopp was fuming with another example of his side’s woeful defending.
He said: “That we conceded (goals) like this makes me really, really sick.
"The story of this game is really easy to tell, we were the much better team in the first half, we played good football, we didn’t score. That’s sometimes part of football.
"But as long as we concede goals like we conceded today again, then it is quite difficult. I’m sick of goals like this.
“They scored too easily and we didn’t push up together for the first.
“I can say it one time or 1,000 so it’s not nice to concede these goals.
"We had big chances and strange situations but it’s a 90-minute game. We need to concentrate to the end."
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