FSG closing on 5-year deal for the new Coutinho

Liverpool are standing at the foot of a new era under Andoni Iraola, and while fans are hoping to see significant improvements in the Premier League, the academy needs rethreading to the first team over the next couple of years.

There’s a sense that Arne Slot never fully trusted the inexperienced youth who made such dramatic gains under Jurgen Klopp before him. ‘Klopp’s Kids’, who played big parts in winning the Carabao Cup in 2023/24, all flaked away after Klopp stood down, and Liverpool had the seventh-oldest starting 11 in the division last year at 26.2.

It was a tough year for the Redmen, but supporters would be in concert that teenager Rio Ngumoha was one of the brightest sparks to emerge from the campaign, with pundit Wayne Rooney even calling him a “joy to watch“.

He’s a first-class prospect, and Liverpool certainly needed his flair in attack last season. The superstars let the team down, with Florian Wirtz failing to pack the playmaking punch that Liverpool expected, first thinking they had signed the new Philippe Coutinho.

Why Liverpool need their new Coutinho

Coutinho still lives on as one of the most exciting and memorable players to have starred for Liverpool in modern times, almost bridging the gap between the dark days in the early 10s and the Klopp-led revival. He kick-started, but departed in January 2018 for a £142m fee, joining Barcelona.

For much of the Klopp era, Liverpool didn’t really operate with a No. 10, but that changed under Slot’s management last year, with Florian Wirtz signed for £116m.

He failed to make his mark, but the German does have the skillset to emerge as Liverpool’s new Coutinho, something FSG probably hoped would have occurred last year.

Liverpool lacked creativity and fluency between the thirds last year, and it’s one of the leading issues that Iraola needs to fix over the coming months.

Of course, there is still hope that Wirtz will come good. He is one of the most talented attackers in the world, after all. However, he’s up against it, with Ngumoha starting to hit higher notes than the older and more expensive man.

And when considering that Liverpool are in the process of signing their new Coutinho anyway, the German’s concerns will have intensified.

Liverpool set to sign their new Coutinho

Coutinho was a rare and one-of-a-kind playmaker, with Klopp once saying he was “worthy of world-class status” at Anfield.

The hope was that Wirtz would have replaced him, but the jury is still out with that one. FSG are aware of this, which is perhaps why they have moved to sign youngster Samuel Martinez.

Martinez is set to join Liverpool for a £750,000 fee, the 17-year-old joining the club from Atletico Nacional next season, heading back to Colombia for the next year on loan. According to Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, he is flying over to Merseyside and intends to put pen to paper over a five-year contract.

He’s an unknown commodity right now, but the Colombia youth star is one of South America’s most interesting young midfielders, and at the U17 CONMEBOL Championship, he dazzled across six matches, averaging 5.2 dribbles and 12.7 duels per game.

In that, he has the potential to emulate Coutinho, who played like a man possessed during those halcyon days at Liverpool. It’s a level that Wirtz is still striving for.

This is a young midfielder who could develop into a player with the kind of physicality that Slot’s Liverpool didn’t have last season, all the while establishing himself as a shrewd and prolific playmaker.

Coutinho was once a superstar at Liverpool, but not much was thought of him when he arrived from Inter Milan for only £8.5m in January 2013. He made significant gains over the duration of his Liverpool career.

Though we won’t see much of Martinez for the next year as he completed another year in his homeland, earning his stripes, there’s a sense that he could be a real superstar down the line, employing the physical intensity and box-to-box energy needed within the modern game while producing technical moments that could see him challenge Wirtz as Coutinho 2.0.