Barcelona have reached an agreement with Aston Villa to loan out out-of-favour playmaker Philippe Coutinho until the end of the season.
As confirmed by the club’s official website, Barcelona have struck an agreement with Premier League club Aston Villa over a loan deal for midfielder Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian will be joining the Midlands club for the rest of the season, with an option of making the transfer permanent in the summer.
Coutinho is currently in his fourth year at Barcelona, having arrived from Liverpool in January 2018. However, the move proved to be a colossal failure as the 29-year-old never really managed to get going at Camp Nou after the Catalan giants shelled out a club-record sum for his signing.
Having failed to click under any of the managers he played under in Catalonia, the Brazilian international has been out of favour for a while now. And the Blaugrana have been intent on getting his massive wages off the books. However, they had been unable to find a suitor for the ex-Liverpool man until now, with Coutinho having rejected a proposal from Newcastle United.
While there had been murmurs of interest from Tottenham and Arsenal, in the end, it is Aston Villa who have snapped up the signing of the Brazilian playmaker. The rumours of the Villans being interested gained momentum over the past few days, and they have swiftly acted to close the deal.
FC Barcelona and @AVFCOfficial have reached an agreement for the loan of the player Philippe Coutinho until the end of the season
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 7, 2022
The statement released by Barcelona confirms that the Premier League club will be paying part of Coutinho’s wages while also retaining the option of making his transfer permanent at the end of the season.
The move is subject to a medical and obtaining a work permit, with the Brazilian set to travel to Birmingham in the next few hours. If everything goes without a hitch, Coutinho will be reuniting with former Liverpool teammate and captain Steven Gerrard, who recently took over the reins as the manager of Aston Villa.
This will be Coutinho’s second stint away from Barcelona on loan after he spent the 2019/20 season on a temporary basis with Bayern Munich, during which he won the Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League.
Having seen his career stagnate since the move to Barcelona from Liverpool, Coutinho will hope for a revival of fortunes back in the Premier League.
