Philippe Coutinho remains Barcelona's record signing after joining the club for an initial £106m from Liverpool in 2018
When Barcelona travel to Bayern Munich on Wednesday, it's unclear whether their record signing will take part.
It's a must-win game for Xavi's team. Otherwise, a home victory for Benfica over already eliminated Dynamo Kyiv would see Barca fail to reach the Champions League knockout stage for the first time since 2004.
Former Liverpool superstar Philippe Coutinho, however, is far from certain to play against his former club, having made a gradual slide from the third-most expensive player in history to a largely overlooked afterthought.
What on earth has happened?
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The dream became a nightmare
The catalyst for Coutinho's arrival in Barcelona in January 2018 was a pair of key departures – Neymar's shock move to Paris St-Germain in August 2017 and the knowledge that club icon Andres Iniesta was soon heading through the exit door.
Loaded with £200m from the enforced sale of Neymar and therefore in a weak bargaining position, Barca never hid the fact Coutinho was their number one target to become the 'new Iniesta' and the 'new Neymar' rolled into one.
Liverpool resisted but eventually negotiated an initial £106m fee, allowing Coutinho to complete his "dream" move to the Catalan coast.
But the dream soon became a nightmare. It was quickly apparent – as it probably always should have been – that Coutinho was not suited to either of his expected new roles. He wanted to play further forward than Iniesta's disciplined midfield role and more centrally than Neymar's left-wing slot.
Instead, he preferred to roam more central areas and find space between the lines of the opposition midfield and defence. But Barca already had someone fulfilling that role and there was no way Coutinho would ever usurp Lionel Messi as the team's main creator.
So Coutinho ended up generally getting in Messi's way, disrupting the team's rhythm by taking too many touches and reduced to hopeful long-range strikes with sporadic success – leading social media wits to sarcastically dub him 'Shootinho'.
Loaned out, injured, unwanted
Coutinho scored 26 goals in 56 appearances for Liverpool between 2016 and 2018 – and has scored 26 goals in 103 appearances for Barcelona since
The arrival of Antoine Griezmann in July 2019 further hindered Coutinho's hopes of becoming a key player and he was pushed out to Bayern Munich on a season-long loan that Barca hoped would lead to a permanent sale.
But Coutinho was no more than a bit-part player in Germany too, starting less than half of Bayern's games. The highlight of his spell came in the Champions League against none other than his parent club Barca, scoring twice off the bench in the era-defining 8-2 quarter-final pummelling.
Bayern rejected the chance to sign Coutinho permanently, preferring to spend their Covid-19 reduced budget on Leroy Sane from Manchester City, so the Brazilian was sent back to Barcelona in the summer of 2020.
He found the club in a state of disarray. Messi was in open warfare with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, who would soon be forced to resign, Luis Suarez led a line of established veterans who had been forced out, and new manager Ronald Koeman was struggling to impose his authority.
Nevertheless, Coutinho made a promising start to the 2020-21 season and found favour with Koeman, becoming a regular in the starting line-up before his latest setback came in the form of a knee injury that sidelined him for eight months, scuppering financially desperate Barca's flagging hopes of selling him last summer.
The outcome was another wasted season.
Still a misfit… Newcastle-bound?
When Coutinho returned in September, Koeman was in his last days in charge as the team stumbled from one crisis to another. Coutinho soon sparked controversy by warming up with miserable reluctance during interim boss Sergi Barjuan's final game at Celta Vigo.
But if the 29-year-old thought Xavi's arrival would herald a fresh opportunity, those hopes were soon dashed.
Coutinho was a late substitute in the new boss' first game – a 1-0 home win over Espanyol. But he was then left on the bench for the Champions League draw with Benfica despite the vital nature of the tie, Xavi preferring teenagers Yusuf Demir, Nico Gonzalez and Gavi to the club's record signing.
He did score a late penalty off the bench against Villarreal, but Saturday's home loss against Real Betis was another disappointment. Coutinho got his first start under Xavi and made a decent early impression before fading badly and being replaced before the hour mark.
Football analyst Domagoj Kostanjsak explained why Coutinho looks unlikely to enjoy a revival under Xavi, even now Messi has gone.
He told BBC Sport: "With Xavi, width and verticality are more relevant than in the past. Xavi loves aggressive midfielders who make runs beyond the opposition's line and attack space with pace and power. Coutinho can't do that.
"We're never going to see Coutinho's full potential at Barca unless the system is catered towards him, which is unlikely to say the least. He doesn't fit the winger or the midfielder roles – and the number 10 role he loves doesn't exist in such a way to accommodate his skill set."
Indeed, Barca's greatest hope for Coutinho now is selling him – ideally to a cash-rich ambitious club like Newcastle – to reduce the club's debt and possibly even fund new signings such as Manchester City's Ferran Torres, who is a main target for Xavi.
In the immediate future, though, Wednesday's decisive date with Bayern – like much of the past four years – is another game that could well pass Coutinho by.
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Comment posted by extratorrestrial, at 09:17 7 Decextratorrestrial
09:17 7 DecThe best ever business from LFC got Van Dijk and Allison with Coutinho transfer fee. The grass is not always greener43013
Comment posted by BigMunB, at 09:46 7 DecBigMunB
09:46 7 DecLiverpool offloading Coutinho and buying Alison and van Dyke with the money must go down as one of the greatest pieces of football business ever.33111
Comment posted by Champ20ns, at 09:11 7 DecChamp20ns
09:11 7 DecCoutinho sums up Barcelona’s transfer dealings over the last several years.1991
Comment posted by theoppositeofdanielfarkeon, at 09:34 7 Dectheoppositeofdanielfarkeon
09:34 7 DecNice bit of business from Liverpool, making a profit and also seeing the player they sold giving no advantage to his new club and making their situation worse.
A lot like Juventus selling Pogba to Utd for £90 Million!
They’re still laughing about it to this day.1957
Comment posted by Q_Q, at 09:17 7 DecQ_Q
09:17 7 DecI’d he’d stayed at LFC, the chances are we wouldn’t have won either the CL or the PL.
Money spent unwisely by Barca but very wisely by Liverpool.19911
Comment posted by theredfox, at 09:51 7 Dectheredfox
09:51 7 DecDelighted it’s all gone wrong for Barca, they and Real Madrid with their illegal approaches to players under contract to unsettle them , encouraging them to ‘stop playing and down tools’ at their clubs. They have been getting away with it for years.16111
Comment posted by jimbobslob, at 09:19 7 Decjimbobslob
09:19 7 DecIt’s a shame but when your playing well and loved more often than not it’s best not to rock the boat. Football careers are over in a flash and Barca are a rotten club and love to tap other players up with no remorse. Liverpool can rightly feel smug.13414
Comment posted by Lewii87, at 09:38 7 DecLewii87
09:38 7 DecExcellent business for liverpool. Got him for 10 mil, got the best out of him, sell him for absurd profit. Perfection.1172
Comment posted by HullHammer, at 09:13 7 DecHullHammer
09:13 7 DecBarca paid over the odds for him. Liverpool knew what they was doing, selling him for that amount of money.897
Comment posted by D73, at 09:17 7 DecD73
09:17 7 DecAs the saying goes the grass isn’t always greener, Coutinho’s antics when he tried to force the move from Liverpool was petty and unprofessional. He could have progressed further under Klopp if he stayed but Karma has stalled his career.834
Comment posted by mal123, at 10:01 7 Decmal123
10:01 7 DecKlopp said it best, as he usually does, ‘stay and they will build a statue of you, go and you will just be another player’.781
Comment posted by Can we have our ball back , at 09:33 7 DecCan we have our ball back
09:33 7 DecCoutinho – one midfielder, undoubtedly gifted = basically the cost of our major weakness (defence) to have TAA, Van Dijk, Gomez, Robertson and Alisson the season we won the title. Thank you Michael Edwards, Jurgen Klopp and Coutinho’s agent751
Comment posted by Jiggery Pokery, at 09:21 7 DecJiggery Pokery
09:21 7 DecWhen vanity, cash & Barça come knocking, what do you do….??
Force a move…?
Refuse to play for Liverpool FC…?
Thanks for the £146m Phil…
We spent it well ..
Red tide rising.687
Comment posted by MrBlueBurns, at 09:22 7 DecMrBlueBurns
09:22 7 DecA defining moment in Barcelona’s history. And one for Liverpool as well. Barcelona believed their own hype and Liverpool used the money extremely well. Look at their respective path’s since this transfer. I still sit here now and think “£140m?!”.543
Comment posted by Carlos, at 09:29 7 DecCarlos
09:29 7 DecIt is both a sad shame and waste of talent that this lad has pretty much been lost to the game since he left England. I get that Barca is a dream move for south american’s but if ever anyone needed proof that the grass isn’t always greener, this would be it. Throw in other’s that left Klopp’s side, Wijnaldum, Can, among others … and you realise it was the team that worked for them … sad.490
Comment posted by mustardcustard, at 09:10 7 Decmustardcustard
09:10 7 DecIf he’d stayed at Liverpool, he would have been where Mo Salah is now, three years ago. Be careful what you wish for.505
Comment posted by Yasir, at 09:19 7 DecYasir
09:19 7 DecGreat piece of business by Liverpool and they improved by not having to fit the team around him.452
Comment posted by One4All, at 09:20 7 DecOne4All
09:20 7 DecThink Newcastle are the only club that can afford him now… Quite fitting424
Comment posted by cxp, at 09:09 7 Deccxp
09:09 7 DecYour caption says 2008 instead of 2018291
Comment posted by matt, at 09:11 7 Decmatt
09:11 7 DecJoined Barca in 2008? Nope240