Philippe Coutinho re-entered the Premier League with a bang, scoring in his first game against Manchester United but has been through peaks and troughs during his time at Aston Villa.
The generally accepted narrative has been that when the Brazilian has performed, so have Aston Villa, yet frequently enough neither have been on song. Many around Villa Park have expressed their wishes for Coutinho to continue after the summer, including Steven Gerrard and John McGinn.
The former Liverpool player is currently on loan from Barcelona, with a €40m buy option available. Both the Brazilian and his parent club would be keen to do a deal but the finances may get in the way according to Fabrizio Romano.
“Then there is Philippe Coutinho – that started in a fantastic way with Aston Villa, but now it’s time for the decision. The last check I did last week, the answer I received is: still nothing decided on Aston Villa’s side. The real point is about the salary, because the salary of Philippe Coutinho is a really huge one.”
This Is Futbol say that Coutinho is on £480,000 per week, which would clearly be out of Aston Villa’s league. Therefore it would require a great deal of compromise from either the player or Barcelona in order to make a deal to Villa possible.