R'z Explains All

Those that known me personally know how passionate I can be when debating things related to the beautiful game. I have been watching the game since around 6 years old, with the colourful jersey of the Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos capturing my attention on an evening in late June 1994. My Mother’s favourite player was John Aldridge and she was following his Ireland side. This was my first introduction to the world cup, besides the excessive marketing on TV and the hand clapper toy McDonald’s would give away with Happy Meals that entire summer. For that moment I was a Mexico fan and was investigating all the permutations of them advancing from a Group E which also contained Italy. Prior to this Serie A was what I had watched occasionally as my Step Father was an avid AC Milan fan, and would rave on about Silvio Berlusconi bringing these 3 Dutch men to the San Siro, it sounded like something out of the book of Matthew and was all too prophetic for me. Meanwhile there was thi

So the January sales are in full swing as Barcelona have broken the British transfer record to secure the signature of long time target Phil Coutinho... Finally! The Phillipe Coutinho Transfer saga started nearly two years ago when Barca chiefs signalled their intentions to bring the Brazilian to the Catalan in the Spring of 2015. Following a tumultuous 2 years and an estimated £145m Lil Phil will now be the second most expensive player in the world. Only childhood friend and international teammate Neymar can boast costing more than Coutinho.  This is an interesting turn in events considering the stance the Liverpool hierarchy took only 6 months ago in rebuffing the what looked like a bumper £113m offer from Barcelona. FSG who have been heavily criticised for showing a lack of ambition during their tenure at Anfield, were adamant that they were not going to do business for the player who had only 6 months previous signed a 5 year extension. So what exactly has changed?