For most of us, the most obvious explanation is usually the one we'll accept. For conspiracy theorists and the paranoid, it's a lot more complicated than that. Given what Liverpool fans went through with Philippe Coutinho over the summer, it's understandable they'd be among the second group.
So when Nike put up a premature message on their site "announcing" Coutinho as a Barcelona player, Liverpool fans were understandably upset.
Nike quickly took it down. What likely happened is that Nike were preparing for the possibility of a January transfer and were simply getting prepared for every eventuality. Then somebody jumped the gun, accidentally posting it to their site. It means nothing.
For the Liverpool fans who saw this last night though, there appeared to be a lot more at play. They want Liverpool to take the matter to FIFA and beyond.
@PeterMooreLFC I am sure you are as annoyed/frustrated by the latest Coutinho news via Nike as much as us supporters are. I hope you and @LFC take the appropriate action via @FIFAcom as this in unacceptable in any profession let alone football #coutinhonike
— Zach Smith (@zachsmith1978) December 31, 2017
For every unwarranted media and commercial mention of his joining Barca, £5m should be added to the transfer fee. Let’s see how much Spanish clubs are prepared to pay for continued ‘tapping up’
— Steve Aspinall (@aspmeister) December 31, 2017
If they were, then they need to unequivocally say so.
Otherwise.....— Stephen Aintree (@StephenAintree) December 31, 2017
Interestingly, Guillem Balague is reporting that Barcelona have not launched a new bid for Coutinho, at least yet.
As there has been no new offer from FCB yet, we don't know what LFC’s final stand. But they seem more ambiguous. "Nothing is forever... there's always a solution" (Klopp). Are they planning to agree something for the summer? Open to huge offer? Things clearer when FCB sends offer
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) December 31, 2017
It will be interesting to see if this is the case, or if there is perhaps more to this than the obvious explanation.
