After Philippe Coutinho totally embarrassed parent club Barcelona, we take a look at those loan decisions that came back to haunt.
Loaning players out has become big business in the football world, but for some it has come at more than a financial price, it has been an embarrassment.
We take a look at four individuals that made their parent club’s pay dearly for undervaluing them.
Let’s begin with the most recent humiliator, Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian has endured nothing short of a nightmare at Barcelona. After an underwhelming loan season at Bayern Munich, his future hangs in somewhat of a contentious position.
It is clear Barcelona doesn’t want him anymore as they have hocked him around Europe like a second-hand car. But no matter what happens from this point on, the former Liverpool man has humiliated his parent club.
While Coutinho’s goals were by no means decisive, he scored two against his parent club to condemn them to one of the worst defeats in their history and sent them crashing out of the Champions League as well as into footballing darkness.
Let’s stick with the Spanish theme. Fernando Morientes was cast aside like a dirty rag when Ronaldo arrived at Real Madrid. He went from hero to zero overnight.
The striker was palmed off on loan to French side Monaco to make way for the Brazilian superstar. It was in 2003/04 Champions League that he came back to haunt his parent club.
The Spaniard scored a goal in each leg of the quarter-final tie to earn his side a five all draw and see Los Blancos go crashing out.
Third time is a charm, but not for Juventus who have been desperate to reclaim Champions League glory for years. Unfortunately, it was one of their own that denied them one of their best chances in recent years.
Kingsley Coman was once on the books of Juventus, and before he became a permanent fixture at Bayern the Bavarian giants took him on loan.
Back in 2015, Max Allegri decided that Coman would not make the grade at the Bianconeri and struck a deal to send him on loan to Bayern.
The young Frenchman came on as a second-half sub in the Champions League round of 16 to bag an assist and score a goal.
His contribution saw Allegri and Juve go crashing out of Europe’s elite tournament six-four.
Our final hero turned villain in Thibaut Courtois.
The Belgian shot-stopper was sent out for three consecutive years on loan to Atletico Madrid by parent club Chelsea.
Before the Blues decided to call him back to replace Petr Cech as their number one, he was able to show them exactly what they had been missing the past three years.
Again it was in the Champions League, and Courtois was able to hold his parent club to bagging just one goal while his Spanish teammates scored three to dump Chelsea out.