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Liverpool signed Philippe Coutinho from Inter Milan on the recommendation of Rafa Benitez as they "didn't even know he was that good," according to former director of football Damien Comolli.
In the spring of 2012, the owners told me that we had a limited spending budget per player of €10 million and we could only sign players who were under 21.
I said to the scout: 'Coutinho becomes our priority' because we were looking for a wide player to replace Dirk Kuyt. He [Coutinho] was not available because they transferred him to Espanyol [on loan] later on.