In one respect, Philippe Coutinho’s status is secure. In another, it is rather less so.
The probable collapse of the transfer market means he is destined to remain one of the most expensive footballers in history for years.
In another, he is in limbo, part of a rare breed: the £100 million (Dh459.2m) misfit.
His ranks among the most glamorous CVs around – Inter Milan, Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich – but it was expanded because his dream move backfired.
Barcelona's record buy underwhelmed. He was loaned out to Bayern, where his performances were respectable rather than remarkable and, even before the contraction in football finances, there was little possibility of a permanent deal.
Links with Chelsea came recently but even with the impending departures of Pedro and Willian, the arranged arrival of Hakim Ziyech from Ajax means one winger is costing them money; with Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Mason Mount on the books, they may not need another, and certainly not at the price touted this week, of £87m.
Barcelona paid a fee rising to £142m for Coutinho in 2018. They were never going to recoup all of that. Now it is a question of how great a hit they take.
In a depressed market, shrouded by uncertainty, with the probability that football revenues will decrease if games are played without fans in the foreseeable future, would anyone realistically pay £50m? And that is even before factoring in Coutinho’s age – 28 in June – and commensurate diminishing resale value.
If Barcelona keep him, as has been suggested, it will be from a position of weakness; he will be impossible to offload for a satisfactory fee.
His move represented a misjudgement on all parts. Barcelona were desperate for a marquee buy after losing Neymar and alighted on another Brazilian.
Coutinho was seen in some circles as a long-term replacement for Andres Iniesta, yet that strange assumption underlined the difficulties of defining an unusual player.
Iniesta was the metronome, the precise passer. Coutinho is involved less but has a capacity to deliver the spectacular goal in a way the Spaniard rarely did.
He was an imperfect fit for both the spots on the left of midfield and the front three in Barcelona’s 4-3-3.
That Antoine Griezmann, another £100m man, has spent much of this season as Barcelona’s left-sided forward illustrated that they gave up on Coutinho and bought a successor before even selling him.
Not that Griezmann, much more of a striker, is an identikit player either. Perhaps no one is; Coutinho is not a pure No 10 or a winger.
Maybe, in old-fashioned terminology, he would be a right-footed inside left, which in part explains why he flourished when Brendan Rodgers played 3-4-2-1, but it raises the question of where to field him.
For Barcelona, the bitter irony should be that they funded the improvement of Liverpool, the team who eviscerated and embarrassed them 4-0 in the Champions League semi-finals a year ago, by stripping them of Coutinho.
There is a temptation to paint him as the 21st-century Pete Best, the man who left a Liverpudlian outfit before world domination followed, but there is a difference: there was no equivalent of Ringo Starr.
Apart from a flirtation with Nabil Fekir, Liverpool never tried to sign anyone remotely similar.
Jurgen Klopp conjured magical moments from Coutinho, but he was not a true Klopp player, as the way the German doubled down on his blueprint with midfield workhorses in the subsequent two years showed.
But as Coutinho finds himself at a crossroads, it raises the question of whose sort of player he actually is. A deluxe talent is bracketed among the costliest footballers ever but he feels unwanted and homeless.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Who is Tim-Berners Lee?
Sir Tim Berners-Lee was born in London in a household of mathematicians and computer scientists. Both his mother, Mary Lee, and father, Conway, were early computer scientists who worked on the Ferranti 1 - the world's first commercially-available, general purpose digital computer. Sir Tim studied Physics at the University of Oxford and held a series of roles developing code and building software before moving to Switzerland to work for Cern, the European Particle Physics laboratory. He developed the worldwide web code as a side project in 1989 as a global information-sharing system. After releasing the first web code in 1991, Cern made it open and free for all to use. Sir Tim now campaigns for initiatives to make sure the web remains open and accessible to all.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Profile
Company name: Marefa Digital
Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Number of employees: seven
Sector: e-learning
Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019
Investors: Friends and family
More from UAE Human Development Report:
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to increase your savings
- Have a plan for your savings.
- Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
- Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
- It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings.
- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Kingfisher Secret
Anonymous, Penguin Books
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Full Party in the Park line-up
2pm – Andreah
3pm – Supernovas
4.30pm – The Boxtones
5.30pm – Lighthouse Family
7pm – Step On DJs
8pm – Richard Ashcroft
9.30pm – Chris Wright
10pm – Fatboy Slim
11pm – Hollaphonic
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
