The agent of Aston Villa loanee Philippe Coutinho is said to be in discussions with Vasco da Gama over extending his stay at the club beyond this month.
The 33-year-old joined the Brazilian side on loan last summer having been deemed surplus to requirements by Unai Emery at Villa. However, that agreement is set to expire at the end of this month, and so a fresh decision will need to be made on the playmaker’s future.
READ MORE: Negotiations touted as exit talk for key Villa ace shows no sign of abating
Coutinho still has one year remaining on his contract with Villa, but with no hope of integrating back into the group and playing a role for Emery, the ideal solution for all concerned would be to move him on permanently this summer and get his wages off our books.
Having contributed five goals and three assists in 25 appearances so far this season, it appears as though he’s done enough to convince Vasco to pursue a new deal, but it remains unclear at this stage if he’ll be available as a free agent if we can agree to terminate his contract, or if it will merely be an extension to his loan deal.
Vasco CEO Carlos Amodeo has been speaking on Coutinho’s future, and has revealed that he is in talks with his agent to reach an agreement on new terms, albeit he doesn’t shed much light on how Coutinho will free himself of Villa, be it on loan or a permanent basis.
“We talked about this, I had the opportunity to say that we want to keep Coutinho,” Amodeo said, as per ESPN Brazil. “He is a player who has been increasingly adapting to Brazilian football and the demands of the Brazilian football calendar.
“We have already started negotiations with his representative to conduct this process of a new contract.
“And we hope that this will happen naturally and that when the competition returns, he’ll already have a new contract signed with us and will continue to be part of our squad due to the technical importance he has for the group.”
While it doesn’t seem as though Villa will be able to get a transfer fee for Coutinho at this point to help with our PSR predicament, shedding his salary off our wage bill will hopefully make a significant difference when it comes to UEFA’s SCR rules, as the assumption is that we’re contributing towards his wages still while on loan at Vasco.
In turn, ideally, we’d see him depart permanently this summer if a deal can be agreed that all parties are happy with, but if it is to be another loan up until his Villa contract expires next summer, then it’s hoped that we can offload as much of his salary as possible onto Vasco and secure some sort of financial relief from a new agreement.
Although Coutinho made an excellent initial impact after joining us and his signing was arguably an important moment in our progression to the point we’re at now given it perhaps opened the door to a different market for the club, his time at Villa is over regardless of his contract and so it’s hoped that we can reach a favourable position with Vasco in the coming weeks.
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