Philippe Coutinho

[Phil Silvers]

1 hour ago, Villa_Vids said:

I read the Coutinho stuff on Newsnow - apparently Barcelona want answers this week on Coutinho. Doubts about whether we are going to pay the 33 million and we may want to pay less than originally suggested.

We will just be playing hardball, manipulating the situation to our advantage. I would take our negotiators over Barcelona's any day. if we sign him permanently, it will be because it was a good value proposition for Aston Villa.

[hippo]

28 minutes ago, Villa_Vids said:

The club actively "future proofing"? The board may asking questions about Carney's future in the first team and Buendia too? Plus investment in other areas of the team too. The ideal scenario for Villa is negotiating down the fee and wages, so we can further improve other areas of the club too. This is surely a good thing for the overall health of the club?

Agree.

Rightly or wrongly though I just thought the club would bankroll project Stevie.

The best villa teams though have always been a collection of players that compliment each other.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

2 hours ago, DCJonah said:

If Coutinho isn't coming next year then I hope Gerrard starts playing Buendia and Bailey much more.

It's what I would hope/assume.

I'd even maybe throw Traore into that mix?

Club could have said " Look, we understand what you're trying to do, but fact is, we've invested heavily in xxx player who has XXX attributes and we aren't open to moving then on or freezing them out , what we can do, is add to the squad to compliment these players and give them a better platform to shine, so find a way to integrate them into your systems " etc. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Davkaus]

28 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

It's what I would hope/assume.

I'd even maybe throw Traore into that mix?

Club could have said " Look, we understand what you're trying to do, but fact is, we've invested heavily in xxx player who has XXX attributes and we aren't open to moving then on or freezing them out , what we can do, is add to the squad to compliment these players and give them a better platform to shine, so find a way to integrate them into your systems " etc. 

Bit awkward when he's already publicly made it clear he wants him and thinks the owners should put their hand in their pocket though, isn't it.

[foreveryoung]

On 12/04/2022 at 11:08, Nicho said:

I don’t doubt his quality I doubt his physical ability. He’s still sharp on the ball and even the small movements but he generally looks pretty immobile.

We shouldn’t be building the team around one player and we can’t have a passenger off the ball.

I understand the love affair and I won’t be unhappy if we do sign him but I hope we don’t. 

He'd run rings round any of our players, so I very much don't he is immobilie. More so slows down to be able to allow our players a bit of a chance to look up for a pass. 

If you watch the games you will see our players are rarely ready for a quick 1-2 or pass from Coutts. 

[messi11]

We don't need Coutinho and he shouldn't be a priority in the summer
He hasn't improved us as a team since he come in. We better of signing players who improve the team

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

49 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Bit awkward when he's already publicly made it clear he wants him and thinks the owners should put their hand in their pocket though, isn't it.

Of course.

Thing is, i'm pretty sure SG and the club will already have had all these discussions.

We are just randoms on a Message Board who give opinions with conviction as if we know what we are talking about. lol

[Made In Aston]

5 hours ago, messi11 said:

We don't need Coutinho and he shouldn't be a priority in the summer
He hasn't improved us as a team since he come in. We better of signing players who improve the team

I'd agree that he hasn't improved us as a collective and with Buendia I think we have a very good player in the no. 10 role already. That said, Coutinho makes watching football more enjoyable so, for selfish reasons, I'd love for us to sign him. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Made In Aston

[Hank Scorpio]

If he's not staying what's the point of playing him.

Might as well try and figure out now how he can make Buendia, Traore etc work into whatever this tactic supposedly is, assuming they stay.

[foreveryoung]

3 hours ago, messi11 said:

We don't need Coutinho and he shouldn't be a priority in the summer
He hasn't improved us as a team since he come in. We better of signing players who improve the team with him.

Corrected for you.

[HalfTimePost]

Weird one. You'd have thought the negotiation had already happened and we knew what the deal was.

Assuming it's not BS, suddenly renegotiating may open us to risk of losing him. But gotta do what's right for the club. 

I kind of assumed we were in a 'we know the money, just a 6 month run at deciding whether it's a deal or not' situation. Interesting to see how it goes 

[Zatman]

I dont think he is staying sadly, our terrible form has probably seen to that. The recent leaks might be us trying to save face

Interesting where he ends up as cant see any of the elite teams taking him on

[beachboys1]

1 hour ago, HalfTimePost said:

Weird one. You'd have thought the negotiation had already happened and we knew what the deal was.

Assuming it's not BS, suddenly renegotiating may open us to risk of losing him. But gotta do what's right for the club. 

I kind of assumed we were in a 'we know the money, just a 6 month run at deciding whether it's a deal or not' situation. Interesting to see how it goes 

maybe club having second thoughts on gerrard as well

[VillaParkAvenue]

2 hours ago, HalfTimePost said:

Weird one. You'd have thought the negotiation had already happened and we knew what the deal was.

Assuming it's not BS, suddenly renegotiating may open us to risk of losing him. But gotta do what's right for the club. 

I kind of assumed we were in a 'we know the money, just a 6 month run at deciding whether it's a deal or not' situation. Interesting to see how it goes 

The fee was negotiated but the salary seems to be the problem. Maybe Villa were hoping Coutinho would agree to lower his salary more. If he is holding out for a salary close to what he had at Barcelona, I can see why Villa are hesitant.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

As much as I would love him to say, if the reported salary of 400k per week is accurate, that is 19.2 mill per year. Multiply that by let's say, a 3 year contract, and it's  57.6 mill , and his reported 33 mill transfer fee and that's almost 91 million pounds .

Mate, that's two top players transfer fees IMO. Probably younger with more sell on value as well.

Having said that, I'm sure I heard one of the Villa journos on a podcast recently say that all was agreed, fee and salaries etc, but it was just up to us. They expected it would just be a formality etc.

Competetion could have made things more difficult, but we've got to think of the greater good of the club.

Unless it's Newcastle who want him, in that case, pay whatever it takes. Lol

Edited April 18, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[jackbauer24]

Coutinho undoubtedly was a superstar. Is he now?

Definitely he is still an incredibly talented player but for the figures mentioned, I'd seriously question the value for money. We've seen some sublime skills from him but I'm not sure how many games he's truly dictated or, more importantly, changed. In recent games Buendia has contributed more in his cameos and is arguably being held back from settling in to the team by accommodating Coutinho.

So Coutinho

or

Buendia and £70-90m (inc wages) to spend on other areas of the squad?

I like the idea of Coutinho and his stardom but I am actually pleased the Villa hierarchy aren't being dazzled by this and are looking at things in a cold, analytical sense. Doesn't matter who they are, all deals should suit the club in the short AND long term. We can let the likes of Newcastle and Everton buy superstars for astronomical figures and get a short term boost at the cost of long term progress and stability.

It was fun for a while, but personally I think the figures would need to be significantly different to make it viable.

[Stephen_Evans]

The great thing about our owners is that if Coutinho doesn't stay it doesn't demonstrate anything negative about their ambition.  Whereas when previous owners messed around, you knew it was because they were holding back or pulling us down.

[Dale]

Absolutely fantastic player no doubt. However, I really don't think he should be first priority. The team hasn't got any better with him in it (form wise worse) - we'd be better off investing elsewhere... And would his loyalty to be a coach that is unlikely to last as long as the player's contract (I can say that based on the fact few managers last three years, I don't think he'll manage more than a year).

[Dale]

Just now, Dale said:

Absolutely fantastic player no doubt. However, I really don't think he should be first priority. The team hasn't got any better with him in it (form wise worse) - we'd be better off investing elsewhere... And would his loyalty to be a coach that is unlikely to last as long as the player's contract (I can say that based on the fact few managers last three years, I don't think he'll manage more than a year).

Given limitless resources I'd be all in, we don't have that! 

[Jareth]

There's been paper talk of reducing the transfer fee in order to accommodate the wages ever since he arrived. I don't think a crap run of games is going to change things - he signed up to his mate slippy's project with NSWE and I can't see him playing us off for NUFC - IMHO he wants to be at Villa and he'll always be able to thretaen Barca with running down his contract for another 12 months.