Jurgen Klopp has said that the “timing” of Philippe Coutinho’s request to leave Liverpool makes it even more out of the question.
Coutinho, 25, has been the subject of two Barcelona bids so far this summer — both rejected by the club — and according to an ESPN FC source, the Brazil international handed in a transfer request on Friday.
Both Klopp and the club’s executives have continued to insist that the player is not for sale, with the German boss telling the Liverpool Echo that the process for a move did not start early enough.
“I had to sell a lot of players in my managerial career,” Klopp said.
“Some had clauses, some had no clauses. We had the [Robert] Lewandowski thing [at Dortmund] and that was difficult when he went to Bayern on a free transfer. A lot of different things.
“The only thing I can say about this is that in life everything is about timing — whichever club asks early enough.
“It’s like how we try to do it. If we ask early enough, we try to do it. If you ask early enough, you can either switch the plan of whatever. But you cannot come up, close to the start of the season and things like this.”
Liverpool have not had an ideal transfer summer either, coming to loggerheads with RB Leipzig over a move for Naby Keita and running amok of Southampton in an attempt to lure Virgil van Dijk away from St Mary’s.
Klopp said: “It’s like I said: the club is bigger than anybody. That is the most important thing. It’s about doing it in the right moment. It’s how we do it when we want to bring players in.
“Most of the other clubs won’t come to us and say ‘by the way, we have a good player, do you want to buy him?’
“It is about timing. That is how I understand it. And that is all I have to say. Maybe everybody has a price — in the right moment. In the wrong moment? No price.”
