Philippe Coutinho, 31, close to joining new team in biggest drop to date since Liverpool exit

Liverpool often sell players when the club feels it is time to leave. Other times, it’s the players who want to leave Liverpool and the club has no option but to sell them because, after all, no club wants to keep an unhappy player.

However, leaving Liverpool didn’t always work out for those who decided to force a move away from Anfield. For every Xabi Alonso, Luis Suarez and Javier Mascherano, there is a Michael Owen, Gini Wijnaldum and, most obviously, Philippe Coutinho.

The Brazilian’s move to Barcelona in early 2018 became one of the worst transfer deals in the history of the game. It was a move that nobody benefited from except Liverpool. Coutinho joined a team that didn’t need him and Barcelona paid over the odds for Coutinho. The end result was the collapse of his career.

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Coutinho was 26 when he joined Barcelona. Seemingly in the prime of his career and after four-and-a-half years of success at Liverpool, in which he scored over 50 goals in all competitions, his insistence on a move to Camp Nou ultimately backfired.

Within 18 months, he was sent on loan to Bayern Munich and his greatest feat for Bayern was scoring against his parent club in an 8-2 demolition in the semi-final of the Champions League in Portugal. He won the Champions League with the German giants but was a peripheral figure. He was sent back to Spain but failed to hold down a starting position in the Barca XI.

Neither move to Aston Villa set the world alight, with the player scoring six goals in total. He joined Al-Duhail on loan to play in the Qatar Stars League, where he scored eight goals in 23 matches. Now 31, Coutinho’s career is about to come full circle as he is set to sign for Brazilian club Vasco Da Gama.

A leaked image shows the player wearing a Vasco shirt. However, no official announcement has been made yet. Coutinho played for Vasco from 2008 to 2010 and rose through the youth academy in the 2000s.

Liverpool.com says: Coutinho’s career is a cautionary tale about thinking the grass is greener, but it’s not necessarily so. At just 31, his career in Europe looks to be as good as it gets, with his career peaking at just 26. His career will always have the question mark of “what if?” about.