The player who shone for Liverpool, but now his career is in shambles

Any time-traveller who could see into the future less than five years ago would not believe the current inconsequential situation of Anfield's most beloved star back in 2018 (possibly also one of the most mourned at the time) and the most expensive ever at FC Barcelona. Indeed, the same Jürgen Klopp, who is still at Liverpool and had him under his command, and Ernesto Valverde, the much-missed Barça coach who was sacked after winning two consecutive league titles, and also managed him as a Blaugrana, barely acknowledge the fallen star.

It was on the eighth of January 2018 when Barcelona made the biggest gamble in its history on a football player, a gamble that still stands today, on Philippe Coutinho, one of the best players in the Premier League at the time. It seemed like betting on a winning horse. He arrived at a Barcelona where Leo Messi ruled on the pitch, a brilliant Barça, which was also going to reign in the Spanish league and to which only occasional slip-ups in the Champions League would take away the colours in two masterful campaigns.

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But Coutinho changed at Barcelona, did not adapt, began asking for patience and, sooner rather than later, exhausted the patience of the Camp Nou, his teammates and the leaders who had signed him, with Josep María Bartomeu at the head. In 2020 he went on loan to Munich, where he also failed to excel, confirming his fall into hell, although he did manage to damage his team, Barça, in the historic 2-8 embarrassment. Then came another inconsequential return to Barça and his loan spell and subsequent sale to Aston Villa, who did have faith in his talent.

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Today, however, Coutinho has dissolved; if there was a glimmer of the crack that startled the English terraces in the last decade, it has vanished. And, for those of us who saw him play, that's a shame. The Villans are not yet struggling in the table, although they are a long way off their targets.