Jurgen Klopp Insists Star Player Sales Remain Unlikely as Coutinho Transfer Saga Rumbles on

Jurgen Klopp has insisted that he does not intend to sell players now that the Premier League season has arrived, throwing a spanner in Philippe Coutinho's exit plans. 

Speaking to the press on Friday shortly before Coutinho's transfer request became public knowledge, the German insisted that there was 'no price' for which he would sell his key players if the timing was wrong. 

He said: "I had to sell a lot of players in my managerial career. Some had clauses, some had no clauses. We had the (Robert) Lewandowski thing and that was difficult when he went to Bayern on a free transfer. A lot of different things.

"The only thing I can say about this is that in life everything is about timing – whichever club asks early enough. It’s like how we try to do it. If we ask early enough, we try to do it. If you ask early enough, you can either switch the plan of whatever. But you cannot come up, close to the start of the season and things like this.

"It’s like I said: the club is bigger than anybody. That is the most important thing. It’s about doing it in the right moment. It’s how we do it when we want to bring players in. Most of the other clubs won’t come to us and say ‘by the way, we have a good player, do you want to buy him?’

"It is about timing. That is how I understand it. And that is all I have to say. Maybe everybody has a price – in the right moment. In the wrong moment? No price."

Speaking on Coutinho specifically, he added: "I have known him for 20 months and that’s the only thing I can say about this. If he would be fit and not in the squad, then maybe we could talk about it. But he is not fit. Everything is not like it should be but it is a normal situation apart from a few things flying around."