Philippe Coutinho is the signing of the transfer window

On Monday, Tottenham Hotspur unveiled the signing of Lewis Holtby. Fans of the north London side were understandably ecstatic about the arrival of the German, with the defeat to Leeds United still ringing in the memory of supporters. While the midfielder grabbed the headlines following his move, looking further up north saw Liverpool going about their business to secure the signing of another young attack minded player.

The Reds have been edging closer to confirming the arrival of Philippe Coutinho from Inter Milan, with the Brazilian destined to depart the San Siro after finding first team opportunities difficult to come by under head coach Andrea Stramaccioni in Italy.

While Southampton had been credited with an interest following the appointment of Mauricio Pochettino earlier this month – the duo having worked together during Coutinho's loan spell with Espanyol – it was Liverpool who have beaten off competition to snare the 20-year-old.

It's fair to say the former Vasco da Gama trainee failed to settle in Italy, despite Ronaldinho once claiming he was to shine as the future of Brazilian football, but now has another opportunity to prove himself in one of Europe's biggest leagues.

It was no secret that Liverpool needed to strengthen their attacking line in January. Following the departures of Andy Carroll and Dirk Kuyt, not to mention missing out on Clint Dempsey to Spurs and losing summer arrival Fabio Borini to injury, options were a necessity if the club wanted to push on.

Luis Suarez, to his credit, led the front-line emphatically, netting 16 times in the Premiership at the time of writing. Yet, if he were to pick up an injury or suspension, the Reds would've been up a certain creek without a paddle.

Manager Brendan Rodgers acted swiftly to secure reinforcements and moved to sign Daniel Sturridge from Chelsea early in January, with the young Englishman netting on his debut during Liverpool's FA Cup third round win over Mansfield on January 6^th.

However, investment was still necessary to bolster the attacking options to Rodgers and it's no shock to see them move for Coutinho. While his best position would be behind the striker, the midfield trio of Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson and Lucas Leiva means he'll hardly feature in his favoured role.

During the ill-fated days of Rafa Benitez, he was regularly shifted to the wing, but struggled against the resolute Italian defences'. In the Premier League, on the other hand, the quicker, open game will undoubtedly suit him that much better.

If he is indeed to play on the wing in a front three, the Reds will not only benefit from his speed and athleticism, but also the strength in depth available to Rodgers. While Suarez, Sturridge and Borini are the club's out-and-out frontmen, the likes of Coutinho, Raheem Sterling and a revitalised Stewart Downing will provide genuine competition for a place either side of the striker.

The young Brazilian will offer Rodgers plenty of options breaking forward, while the likelihood of Gerrard playing early through balls, much like when Fernando Torres was at the club, will only aid their quest to re-establish themselves as genuine top four contenders.

The £8.5m paid to take him to Anfield from the San Siro may be somewhat of a gamble, having followed a similar career path as that of Alexandre Pato while taking Liverpool's January spend over the £20m mark, but if he establishes himself as a threat, be it in the middle or on the wings, it could well be the best £8.5m they've spent in recent years, especially if Coutinho fulfils his potential that he showed as a youngster for Vasco.  

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Comments

[superspurs]

What utter shite.. the guy couldn't make it in Italy or during his loan spell in Spain where players have time on the ball..

He will is over rated and everytime i have seen him he has been too light weight and will not be able to cope with the demands and pace of the English game.

yet ANOTHER bad Liverpool signing

[Dazzywood]

What u mean didn't make it in Spain ???? Do you watch football or just read out of other people's post ??? The lad is 20 years old the time he had at inter was limited due to the talent they had there ....when given chance in Spain he played well with the time he got this boy will be good signing for pool I'd take him everyday over downing wouldn't you ? People say never heard of him and why inter sell him cheap if he so good .... Who heard of Hernandez ??? Michu ??? All very small fees you people would have loads to say if we went out and spent £50 million on a player ( Torres ) and didn't deliver nothing is garenteed with players...... veron ...shevchenko springs to mind .. Get behind the boy instead of writing him off before he's kicked a ball ynwa !!!!

[Bill]

Seriously? I swear you let your children write this...

Zaha to United is the best deal this January, followed closely by Holtby to Spurs.

Shocking journalism...

[Patrick]

LOL to that comment above ^ Coutinho is pure talent with burning speed plus amazing ball control & dribbling ability and Rodgers is the man to turn him into a superstar. People were saying why buy Javier Mascherano he must be useless he can't even get a game at West ham, now look at him..

[superspurs]

Yeah Liverpool have a smashing recent transfer track record dont they... Carroll, Downing, Henderson shall i go on??

I love it when Liverpool fans think they are still a big club, get over it and move on... English football has thats why your, at best, a top 6 team AT BEST

And no i dont hate Liverpool, i just dont understand why people think Coutinho is going to do anything i for one cant wait to see the 1st time he has to play Stoke away and one of their hence men kick him up in the air and watch him go missing for the rest of the game.

P.S just a little teeny tiny question... if he is so good why did Inter sell him and for less than £9 million? i'll leave you with that thought

[istnbl2005]

spurs make me laugh, one champions league appearance in there history and they think they can get cheeky to big teams lol, get a grip mate form is temporary liverpool will always be considered amongst the biggest in the world, spurs are only the third biggest team in london lol. and as a spurs fan you should remember Coutinho as a 18 yo running your back four ragged. you couldn't dream of players like him let alone SUAREZ lol

[stantheman]

liverpool are still abig club true,but you seem to forget that they used to talk about the big four .Now there are about 6 or 7 teams going for the top four and spurs are one of them .the signingof coutinho may work out well onl time will tell but i think one gareth bale ran inters back four ragged and we had ten men.anyway good luck in trying to catch us up because you have not finished above us for afew years now and by hte way istnbl 2005 no true football supporter uses the phrase lol and we are not dreaming of suarez as much as you would love bale or even dembele,vertonghen,Lloris ,walker ,lennon or do you still want dempsey?

[bigirl]

stantheman: you started so well - sounded almost like a (rare) reasoned Tottenham fan. But you really shouldn't be banging on about the fact you have Dembele (every big club decided against taking him in the summer), Vertonghen (who?) and Lloris (nice pick-up). As for Walker, Lennon and Dempsey, you don't need to worry about Man City banging down your door for them. There is only one reason why Tottenham are up there with the giants of the Premiership and he'll be playing for Real Madrid come September; then we'll all see how good (or bad) a manager AVB is...

[Dave]

Dreaming of Suarez? hahaha! Lloris = World Class, Walker = Close to world class, Vertonghen = World Class, Kaboul = World Class, Bale = One of the world's best, Lennon = Playing like a world class winger this season (finally), Dembele = Showing his true class at a bigger club, Sandro = The best CDM in the premier league, Adebayor = Pretty shit (has to be said haha) and defoe has been shit hot this season. And we have some huge young talents on the bench in the shape of steven caulker, gylfi siggurdson, lewis holtby, andros townsend, tom carrol and danny rose. And we have a youth team that is kicking pretty much every team's ass including barcelona 4-1 at the camp nou. We've got a squad jam packed full of very good players and you think we're envious of liverpool having suarez?

[istnbl2005]

i dont wanna write how shit your team is coz i know spurs aint shit, just a Gareth Bale a.c.l off average. and stop banding "world class" around willy-nilly, i mean Kaboul? world class? stop it just stop it.
spurs are a team full of good professionals who play well as a unit but you aint nothing special, still flogging that 442 horse. I'm taking Reina over Lloris admittedly theres nothing in it. glen johnson over walker (take it up with the last 2 england managers) agger,/skrtel or vertonghan/kaboul take your pick but I'm having Enrique over assou-ekotto lucas starts ahead of Sandro for brazil Gerrard is Gerrard you can have Bale.. sturridge/suarez/stering or Lennon/adebayor/defoe i wont even dignify that with a answer. we are on the rise and challenging for the title is our goal. spurs are in a perpetual fight for top 4 thats cool but thats your limit, that would never be acceptable long term thinking for LFC tho

[Lee]

Rome is the capital of Italy not Milan

[Dave]

Europa league is the only thing liverpool are challenging for dude. The title? What have you been smoking, give me some please and i'll be imagining spurs are in the champions league final!

[Arsenalboy]

superspurs in actual fact Coutihno was very good in spain it just shows how little you actually know. I am actually jealous of LFC as he is a great player. He needs some tactical coaching which Brendan is good at. So he has it all ahead of him. Wish him well.

[LFCLAD]

super spurs. You ask why he left inter for 9 mil. You say he must be crap because of that!! Mr. Holtby signed for tottenham for 1.5 mil and is 2 years older. So he must be awful. No. Transfer fees are all over the place Our man came from a big club with players like sneijder stopping him from getting into the team. Your man (holtby) Came from a club where he was playing for first team and they let him go for 1.5. A team letting a first team player for 1.5 mil smells fishy. He has been injured twice in quick succession over the last 2 months each time out for at least 2 weeks. Good look with that.

[NOIAMTHEBESTEST]

you ALL make me laugh

you know nothing about football, have you never even seen the malaysian league ????

ching bong mook is the greatest player of the transfer window, he won't be comping to the EPL because he has to catch fish in the closed season.

his skills are tremendous, both with the soccerball and with the net.

[AS9]

Hilarious - another 9m down the pan by Rogers - when will liverpool learn?
wil join Borini and allen as utter wast of money - newcastle have bought sissoko for under 2m - now thats the signing of the window

[Gaz]

5 goals is 16 games for Espanyol shows that he actually can make it in the Spanish league. Despite what some people, mostly people supporting other clubs think, this is an excellent signing and adds options to our attacking options. Suarez, Sturridge, Borini, Sterling, Downing, Suso, Shelvey, Henderson, Gerrard and now Coutinho, take Gerrard, Suarez and Downing out of those and the maximum age is Henderson who is 22 and that is scary the talent and potential Liverpool have.