Damian Comolli lifts lid on FSG’s transfer ban, Coutinho & Rafa

Former Liverpool FC director of football Damian Comolli has revealed that Rafa Benitez played a huge part in Philippe Coutinho becoming a Liverpool player.

When Benitez was sacked by Inter Milan in December 2010, he contacted close friend and former Liverpool Academy director Frank McPartland and told him about a certain youngster at Inter called Philippe Coutinho.

Benitez urged Liverpool to go for the youngster and said to McPartland that the Italians had no idea how good he was so they should move fast. McPartland spoke with Comolli about the suggestion from Benitez and it was agreed that Anfield scouts would try and take a look at him. When they did manage to see him in action, they reported back positively and a decision was eventually made to bid for him.

Comolli says Fenway Sports Group (FSG) insisted back in early 2012 that the club did not spend more than €10m on any player and stipulated that they all had to be under 21 years of age. Coutinho was the perfect target due to those limitations.

Having signed a new 5-year deal with Liverpool last week, Comolli explains how the Brazilian ending up signing for Liverpool back on this day in 2013.

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Comolli said: “In the spring of 2012, the owners told me that we had a limited spending budget per player of €10 million and we could only sign players who were under 21.

“I said to the scout: ‘Coutinho becomes our priority’ because we were looking for a wide player to replace Dirk Kuyt. He [Coutinho] was not available because they transferred him to Espanyol [on loan] later on.

“We didn’t even know he was that good: it was difficult to watch him play because he was never playing at Inter.

“We knew about him, we knew he was good, but it was only when Rafa said he’s going to be world-class. When somebody like Rafa says a thing about a player like this, you listen.

“The head of recruitment said he was the best we could get. But I was sacked, then Kenny [Dalglish] was sacked.”

Although Dalglish and Comolli left the club, new boss Brendan Rodgers followed up on Rafa’s recommendation to move for Coutinho. He was captured for £8.5million and although higher fees were paid for some other players around that period, Rodgers’ spend did average out at around €10m per player.