West Ham United star Michail Antonio has jumped to the defence of Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho, and has encouraged the Brazilian to leave Anfield this summer amidst interest from Barcelona.
Coutinho has been heavily linked with a move to the Nou Camp before the end of August, and has done his best to force a move through, even handing a transfer request in much to the disgust of the Anfield faithful. Liverpool however are adamant their talisman midfielder is not for sale.
England international Antonio believes however that Coutinho is right to try to leave the Merseyside club, and should not be criticised for attempting to take the step up to the La Liga giants.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Antonio said : “Can you give someone a bad name for wanting to be ambitious? For wanting to move onto bigger things?
“In a normal job, if there was a chance for you to get promoted, are you going to go: ‘no, no, no – I want to stay in the exact same spot I’m in now’. Or, are you going to strive and move forward and be better?”
Coutinho joined Liverpool from Inter Milan in the January of 2013, and has since become one the club’s star players. In four and a half seasons with the Reds, he has made 182 appearances and scored 42 times. He has also been the Liverpool fan’s Player of the Year for the past two seasons.
Antonio, formerly of Sheffield Wednesday, believes Coutinho has done more than enough at Anfield over the past years to deserve to leave the club on good terms.
“He’s been the perfect servant for them for the past three or four years.
“His opportunity has arisen to take that massive step and the club are going to keep you where you are. He had no other option to do what he did.”
