Rodgers reveals Coutinho sent text after Barcelona move

Bengaluru, January 11: Former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has revealed Philippe Coutinho sent him a special text message after he joined Barcelona.

The Brazilian Coutinho became the second-most expensive player in World football after his £145million move to Barca on Monday (January 8).

The current Celtic manager who was invincible last season and is also on road to secure the League title this season as well following his sackingl from Liverpool in the middle of the 2015-16 season.

However, in his time at the club, the former Swansea manager made some shrewd transfer deals and he was the man who identified Coutinho in his Inter days when he was just a fringe player and signed him in January 2013 for just £8.5million.

The Brazilian played for three seasons under Rodgers and the playmaker began to get better every year in his progress.

And now while talking about his former player, Rodgers spoke of his influential role in turning Coutinho from a promising player to a star and said the player always had the ability to be such a good player.

He said: “He sent me a nice text the other day when he was arriving in Barcelona. He is a great young guy, he was never a moment’s problem for me. He was a magical player to work with.

“It’s brilliant for both as he is a Barcelona player if ever there was one.

“At the time when I brought him, he wasn’t in the team at Inter Milan.

“People questioned whether he was big enough and tall enough.

“But I’d seen him as a young player at 18 at Inter Milan around top players and I always felt he had the technical quality. And, of course, he was always going to get better physically.

“We kept in contact ever since we left. Before he came over to Liverpool, he was low in confidence.

“I believed in his ability. It was clear what he was. If you see him play now, he played like that when he was an 11 year old child, if you see videos of him playing Futsal.

“He was exactly the same. But he needed that belief. He came in and developed and improved. He was outstanding for me and a real humble boy.

“He will go and join Luis (Suarez) now. They both got on very well.

“He is in the middle of his asset age, so he’s going to light it up there for the next eight, nine, ten years. A brilliant player who works really hard and never forgets his roots.”

Despited completing his transfer, Coutinho still has to wait for another two weeks at least for his Barca debut as he is out injured.