Coutinho Moves to Villa Park
1842
There have not been many big moves in the January transfer window at the time of writing. However, one major deal to come out of nowhere in the Premier League sees the return of Philippe Coutinho to English football.
The Brazilian had made a loan move from Barcelona to Aston Villa and it is certainly a fantastic deal on paper for the midlands club. There is no doubt Barcelona were keen to offload Coutinho in the January transfer window as they aim to reduce their wage bill.
The Catalan giants want to add new signing, Ferran Torres, to their squad and wanted Coutinho’s £15 million-a-year salary off their books.
There were reports of other Premier League clubs interested in a deal for Coutinho but Aston Villa were the club who pushed to make the move happen.
Aston Villa have signed Coutinho on loan until the end of the season and his long term future will be discussed in the summer. However, Aston Villa will be delighted with their business and will be hoping they see the same Coutinho that dazzled in a Liverpool shirt.
Aston Villa manager, Steven Gerrard, played at Liverpool with Coutinho until the summer of 2015 and had a leading role in bringing Coutinho to Villa Park.
In terms of his debut, it is currently unclear as Coutinho has been isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 but there are rumours he could feature in the Premier League fixture against Manchester United, which would be some game to make his bow.
This is a massive signing for Aston Villa as Coutinho remains a big name in world football. However, while it will be exciting for Aston Villa fans to have such as massive name at the club, it is worth remembering why Barcelona were so keen to get Coutinho off their books.
Only 18 months into his time at the Camp Nou, Barcelona were trying to offload Coutinho and he joined Bayern Munich on loan for one season.
Ronald Koeman tried to include Coutinho in his plans for the 2020/21 season but performances were not great and the Brazilian picked up a knee injury which brought an end to his campaign in December.
Coutinho’s confidence must be low right now and it will be interesting to see if he can rebuild his career in the second half of the Premier League season.
You must go back to October 2020 to find the last time Coutinho represented his country and Emiliano Buendia, who has started to deliver some eye catching performances for Aston Villa in Coutinho’s position, will be looking on with interest.
Buendia was brought in from Norwich City to play in the roaming role Coutinho will want to fill in the team and the Argentine will not want to lose his place in the starting XI to the Brazilian.
Gerrard will say competition for places is good but with such as significant outlay on wages to bring Coutinho in, he must start games. Can Coutinho propel Aston Villa to the next level or will his arrival disrupt the dressing room and leave Gerrard with a problem?
Home
Football 
Basketball
Hockey
American Football
Baseball
Rugby
Volleyball
Handball
Esoccer
