Philippe Coutinho: Barcelona's £100m misfit who finds himself an unwanted man

In one respect, Philippe Coutinho’s status is secure. In another, it is rather less so. The probable collapse of the transfer market means he is destined to remain one of the most expensive footballers in history for years. In another, he is in limbo, part of a rare breed: the £100 million (Dh459.2m) misfit. His ranks among the most glamorous CVs around – Inter Milan, Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich – but it was expanded because his dream move backfired. Barcelona's record buy underwhelmed. He was loaned out to Bayern , where his performances were respectable rather than remarkable and, even before the contraction in football finances, there was little possibility of a permanent deal. Links with Chelsea came recently but even with the impending departures of Pedro and Willian , the arranged arrival of Hakim Ziyech from Ajax means one winger is costing them money; with Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Mason Mount on the books, they may not need another, and certainly not at the price touted this week, of £87m. Barcelona paid a fee rising to £142m for Coutinho in 2018. They were never going to recoup all of that. Now it is a question of how great a hit they take. In a depressed market, shrouded by uncertainty, with the probability that football revenues will decrease if games are played without fans in the foreseeable future, would anyone realistically pay £50m? And that is even before factoring in Coutinho’s age – 28 in June – and commensurate diminishing resale value. If Barcelona keep him, as has been suggested , it will be from a position of weakness; he will be impossible to offload for a satisfactory fee. His move represented a misjudgement on all parts. Barcelona were desperate for a marquee buy after losing Neymar and alighted on another Brazilian. Coutinho was seen in some circles as a long-term replacement for Andres Iniesta, yet that strange assumption underlined the difficulties of defining an unusual player. Iniesta was the metronome, the precise passer. Coutinho is involved less but has a capacity to deliver the spectacular goal in a way the Spaniard rarely did. He was an imperfect fit for both the spots on the left of midfield and the front three in Barcelona’s 4-3-3. That Antoine Griezmann, another £100m man, has spent much of this season as Barcelona’s left-sided forward illustrated that they gave up on Coutinho and bought a successor before even selling him. Not that Griezmann, much more of a striker, is an identikit player either. Perhaps no one is; Coutinho is not a pure No 10 or a winger. Maybe, in old-fashioned terminology, he would be a right-footed inside left, which in part explains why he flourished when Brendan Rodgers played 3-4-2-1, but it raises the question of where to field him. For Barcelona, the bitter irony should be that they funded the improvement of Liverpool, the team who eviscerated and embarrassed them 4-0 in the Champions League semi-finals a year ago, by stripping them of Coutinho. There is a temptation to paint him as the 21st-century Pete Best, the man who left a Liverpudlian outfit before world domination followed, but there is a difference: there was no equivalent of Ringo Starr. Apart from a flirtation with Nabil Fekir, Liverpool never tried to sign anyone remotely similar. Jurgen Klopp conjured magical moments from Coutinho, but he was not a true Klopp player, as the way the German doubled down on his blueprint with midfield workhorses in the subsequent two years showed. But as Coutinho finds himself at a crossroads, it raises the question of whose sort of player he actually is. A deluxe talent is bracketed among the costliest footballers ever but he feels unwanted and homeless.

Philippe Coutinho: Barcelona's £100m misfit who finds himself an unwanted man

Brazilian midfielder is in need of a loving home after dream move to Barca turns sour and loan switch to Bayern fails to reignite stalled career