Gary Neville: 'Liverpool mad to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona'

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has insisted that Liverpool would be 'mad' to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona before the end of the campaign.

  "I have been tweaking the tail of the tiger with my tweets to Jamie Carragher about the Philippe Coutinho situation and actually agree with his suggestions that Liverpool should do a deal with Barcelona for the summer," he said. "To have turned down a bid in the summer and then lose him now would be madness. You're always likely to lose a player when Barcelona or Real Madrid come calling. There's an inevitability of him leaving but they need to say 'give us time'. "To lose him now could have a terrible impact on their season. Liverpool are too big a football club to let one player mess them around. To be fair, I wouldn't say they won't make the top four if he goes, but the impact off the pitch and in the dressing room - along with a loss of skill on the pitch - will be huge. "There's also their troubles with breaking down deep-lying defences, which was clear when you looked at the Everton game when they left him on the bench. It also just sends completely the wrong message and I agree with Jamie: there will be a two-tier impact if they let him go now."