OPINION | Philippe Coutinho 2.0: Return of the English Premier League's prodigal son

There was a time five years ago that if you asked a Liverpool fan who their favourite current player was, there was a very high chance that they'd answer Philippe Coutinho.

The little Brazilian wizard pulled the strings in the Reds midfield, and under Jurgen Klopp, the dormant giant of English football started to awaken from its slumber.

And then it all changed.

Coutinho felt the pull of La Liga, and Barcelona, in particular.

It's happened before to players from Latin America, and it certainly will happen again.

Liverpool fans were astounded that just a year after signing a new long-term deal with the Merseyside club, their playmaker, the fulcrum around which Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino excelled, wanted to leave.

And did he ever.

Coutinho put up a bit of a show, including a supposed back injury that kept him out of a pre-season game against Bayern Munich at the start of the 2017/18 season.

That "injury" saw him miss the start of the English Premiership season as well.

Despite handing in a transfer request, Coutinho eventually returned to the side, playing 20 games, scoring 12 goals, and registering nine assists.

Klopp famously told Coutinho that if he stayed at Anfield, he would have a statue outside the famous ground one day.

However, that couldn't sway him, and Liverpool granted him his wish.

In January, they sold him to Barcelona for a reported deal of around £105 million. 

Many Liverpool fans couldn't believe that the club's leadership had agreed to let their best player leave.

But they had a plan in place with the funds his sale generated.

Coutinho's sale funded the arrival of Virgil van Dyk from Southampton in that same transfer window and Alison Becker at the start of the next season.

Although Liverpool had lost