Perhaps it wasn’t obvious at the time, but the departure of Philippe Coutinho was a transformative moment for Liverpool. The Brazilian had been a great player at Anfield, but when Barcelona came to prize him away from the club, it was an offer that was impossible to turn down, and allowed Liverpool to build Jürgen Klopp’s first great team.
Almost six years on, Liverpool should be open to doing business with Barcelona once again in the January transfer window, this time for a player whose future seemingly does not belong at Anfield in the long term.
The player in question is of course Thiago Alcântara, who arrived with so much promise and who definitely impressed at times for Liverpool, but has always been held back by injuries during his time at the club.
Even now, he is still on the sidelines and yet to play for Liverpool this season, and it speaks volumes of the club’s current options that the Reds have not really felt his absence. There is no question that Thiago in his prime was a world-class player, but because of his injury problems, he has hardly ever been able to perform at his best in a Liverpool shirt.
According to Mundo Deportivo in Spain, Barcelona is looking at Thiago as a potential option to replace Gavi, who picked up an injury in the international break recently that will rule him out for the rest of the season.
Liverpool won’t be able to get a lot for Thiago given his contract situation and Barcelona’s financial predicament. However, even getting a little bit of a return for his services will be better than nothing. After all, every little helps.
Selling Thiago now is an obvious solution for Liverpool. It frees up the wage bill a little bit for the next six months of the season, and it means the Reds won’t lose him for nothing. At the same time, his loss will not dent Klopp’s squad. As mentioned above, his absence from the team hasn’t really been felt at all this season, and with Stefan Bajčetić hopefully returning to action soon, Liverpool should use the youngster over Thiago anyway to build for the future if both players are available in the second half of the season.
