Philippe Coutinho

[villaglint]

On balance 

Pros

- A real statement signing. With Newcastle now added to the super rich not a bad time to do it.

- Demonstrates the power of the Gerrard name.

- He is the maverick Brazilian genius we’ve all wanted since we missed out on Juninho.

- Fits the system perfectly.

- Will link up well with Ings, Buendia, Watkins and others.

- Will probably help in getting Dougie to sign a new contract.

- One of most expensive signings ever in 2018.

- CL and treble winner as recently 19/20.

- Manager knows him inside out.

 

Cons

- Major knee injury in 2021.

- Huge wages 

 

So for me it all comes down to medical staff, if he has any chance of getting close to the player he was pre injury it’s an absolute no brainier and potentially a HUGE HUGE singing for us. 
 

You’d hope that under this regime and given the sums involved this regime will do everything they can to satisfy themselves of that. But it’s still Villa at the end of the day so you never know. We did sign Drinkwater to try and save our PL skins after all. 
 

I think the option to buy is crucial here as given his recent fitness I’d guess he’s unlikely to hit the ground running as a pure short term loan. 

Edited January 6, 2022 by villaglint

[villa4europe]

2 minutes ago, villaglint said:

On balance 

Pros

- A real statement signing. With Newcastle now added to the super rich not a bad time to do it.

- Demonstrates the power of the Gerrard name.

- He is the maverick Brazilian genius we’ve all wanted since we missed out on Juninho.

- Fits the system perfectly.

- Will link up well with Ings, Buendia, Watkins and others.

- Will probably help in getting Dougie to sign a new contract.

- One of most expensive signings ever in 2018.

- CL and treble winner as recently 19/20.

- Manager knows him inside out.

 

Cons

- Major knee injury in 2021.

- Huge wages 

 

So for me it all comes down to medical staff, if he has any chance of getting close to the player he was pre injury it’s an absolute no brainier and potentially a HUGE HUGE singing for us. 
 

You’d hope that under this regime and given the sums involved this regime will do everything they can to satisfy themselves of that. But it’s still Villa at the end of the day so you never know. We did sign Drinkwater to try and save our PL skins after all. 

Missed the biggest con off for me 

Dropping down from barca to villa how much fire is left in his belly, what's his professionalism going to be like? Will he be Billy big bollocks Jamie tart making his loan about as useful as Drinkwater? 

The negative is the mental side of it 

Edited January 6, 2022 by villa4europe

[villaglint]

Just now, villa4europe said:

Missed the biggest con off for me 

Dropping down from barca to villa how much fire is left in his belly, what's his professionalism going to be like? Will he be Billy big bollocks Jamie tart making his loan about as useful as Drinkwater? 

Fair - was trying to think of more add them to the list. 

[Laughable Chimp]

5 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Missed the biggest con off for me 

Dropping down from barca to villa how much fire is left in his belly, what's his professionalism going to be like? Will he be Billy big bollocks Jamie tart making his loan about as useful as Drinkwater? 

The negative is the mental side of it 

From what I've read of Coutinho he's always been a model professional.

[Don_Simon]

If this happened, it signals the end of playing Ings and Watkins in same 11. One of them up front, Buendia and Coutinho behind. Then the three centre mids. 

(I am very happy with this by the way).

[cheltenham_villa]

47 minutes ago, villaglint said:

On balance 

Pros

- A real statement signing. With Newcastle now added to the super rich not a bad time to do it.

- Demonstrates the power of the Gerrard name.

- He is the maverick Brazilian genius we’ve all wanted since we missed out on Juninho.

- Fits the system perfectly.

- Will link up well with Ings, Buendia, Watkins and others.

- Will probably help in getting Dougie to sign a new contract.

- One of most expensive signings ever in 2018.

- CL and treble winner as recently 19/20.

- Manager knows him inside out.

 

Cons

- Major knee injury in 2021.

- Huge wages 

 

So for me it all comes down to medical staff, if he has any chance of getting close to the player he was pre injury it’s an absolute no brainier and potentially a HUGE HUGE singing for us. 
 

You’d hope that under this regime and given the sums involved this regime will do everything they can to satisfy themselves of that. But it’s still Villa at the end of the day so you never know. We did sign Drinkwater to try and save our PL skins after all. 
 

I think the option to buy is crucial here as given his recent fitness I’d guess he’s unlikely to hit the ground running as a pure short term loan. 

Its a bit of an assumption that Dougie will be happier because we've signed another Brazilian. Plenty of English people I don't like.

 

 

[villaglint]

1 minute ago, cheltenham_villa said:

Its a bit of an assumption that Dougie will be happier because we've signed another Brazilian. Plenty of English people I don't like.

 

 

Yes potentially but I’d guess they’ve played together for Brazil so may already be friends, Dougie also had a good connection with Wesley so I do think common nationality/language helps.

Also it’s a signal to a player who may think his ambitions are higher than ours that maybe he doesn’t need to leave to play with top players. No idea if that applies to Dougie but it doesn’t hurt all the same. 

[cheltenham_villa]

1 minute ago, villaglint said:

Yes potentially but I’d guess they’ve played together for Brazil so may already be friends, Dougie also had a good connection with Wesley so I do think common nationality/language helps.

Also it’s a signal to a player who may think his ambitions are higher than ours that maybe he doesn’t need to leave to play with top players. No idea if that applies to Dougie but it doesn’t hurt all the same. 

How do you think he'd fit with Buendia? They strike me as similar. 

I think it would be a massive statement if we could get him, I worry like many others that he will become another ageing top talent who has lost the ability to fight. 

Another con for your list, he won't have played in a team like ours where the average level of ability is lower than he is used to. (Not a dig, we are not Barca, Bayern, Liverpool, Brazil)

[peterw]

If Buendia shifts to the right it allows space for Coutinho. Given that Barca are likley to cover some of his wages that wouldn't be an issue either. The drop down isn't going to be a deal breaker for the player;he wants to try and regain his place in the Brazil squad ahead of Qatar and sitting on the bench at a club higher up the food chain won't help him to achieve that. We are one of many in the next bracket that could try and tempt him, and of course the ace we have is the manager.

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by peterw

[peterw]

12 minutes ago, cheltenham_villa said:

Its a bit of an assumption that Dougie will be happier because we've signed another Brazilian. Plenty of English people I don't like.

 

 

maybe so, but if you move jobs to Brazil and one those that you didn't like was the only English person there you'd soon be on speaking terms.

[villa4europe]

If alisha isn't enough to keep Dougie happy... 

[Adman]

I'm still 100% in, but a concern is that he's another player who is expecting and likely promised to start when fit alongside Bailey, Buendia, Ings, Watkins etc regardless of form.  And is he "the grit" that we are apparently missing?  He would add to the non grit for me.

Either way get him signed

[Awol]

1 hour ago, Laughable Chimp said:

From what I've read of Coutinho he's always been a model professional.

Yes, and how the player views the whole situation matters too.

There’s either the negative @villa4europe view that frames Villa as some lowly dump no self respecting elite player would go anywhere near, or there’s the view where Villa is an exciting project, being run by his good friend and bank-rolled by owners with the funds to realise it. 

Hopefully he shares the latter view. 

[Panto_Villan]

If it’s a loan it’s worth taking the risk. He might turn out to be an ageing has-been, or he might turn out to be Phillipe Countinho of old. Given it’s not actually our money I reckon it’s a good idea to give it a try.

I mean, I still think the Ross Barkley loan was a good idea. The only problem was we kept playing him long after the experiment failed and it became obvious he wasn’t pulling his weight.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Panto_Villan

[villa4europe]

11 minutes ago, Awol said:

Yes, and how the player views the whole situation matters too.

There’s either the negative @villa4europe view that frames Villa as some lowly dump no self respecting elite player would go anywhere near, or there’s the view where Villa is an exciting project, being run by his good friend and bank-rolled by owners with the funds to realise it. 

Hopefully he shares the latter view. 

Im just applying the perspective that he's the 3rd biggest transfer of all time to arguably the biggest club in the world joining a team 13th in the PL on a 6 month... Thats a lot of weight for someone's shoulders, I'm really struggling to think of a bigger fall from grace, this lowly dump stuff I'm struggling to think of a comparative transfer without age and nostalgia being a factor, dembele has fallen out of favour at barca too, he isn't on the brink of joining everton is he? He's linked with bayern and juve 

I'm not going to argue that we're not better run than them with seemingly a better manager for him personally because we are 

But being blunt the reality is this is a big drop for a very well paid older player who hasn't been shown a lot of love for the last few years, of course I've got reservations as to what we'll get 

[Tommo_b]

At 29.. this would be a pretty astute signing. Fingers crossed. 

[Follyfoot]

19 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

If it’s a loan it’s worth taking the risk. He might turn out to be an ageing has-been, or he might turn out to be Phillipe Countinho of old. Given it’s not actually our money I reckon it’s a good idea to give it a try.

I mean, I still think the Ross Barkley loan was a good idea. The only problem was we kept playing him long after the experiment failed and it became obvious he wasn’t pulling his weight.

Your last paragraph confirms one of the real problems with these type of deals, obligation to play regardless of form 

Edited January 6, 2022 by Follyfoot

[ThunderPower_14]

I'd flat out buy him even if they didn't offer a loan. You don't get the chance to add a genuinely world class player as a club in our position very often. 

29 isn't old FFS. It's the prime of a modern professional. The top 8 in the Ballon D'Or were all 29 or older. 

[tomav84]

6 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

Your last paragraph confirms one of the real problems with these type of deals, obligation to play regardless of form 

i don't think we had such an obligation. i think smith couldn't deal with the tantrum if he dropped him. think there was also an element of keeping jack's mate happy

[a-k]