With Philippe Coutinho rumoured to be on his way out of Aston Villa, it’s arguably the right decision from the club to offload the Brazilian even at this late stage.
Admittedly, there are still valid arguments in favour of keeping the 31-year-old in the squad. Aside from the eternal hope that we’ll see him flourish in a Villa shirt under Unai Emery, the transfer window is now closed in terms of incomings, and so we’re running the risk of leaving ourselves light.
Sign up for the Talk Villa newsletter, a free weekly Villa round-up delivered straight to you!
With Emiliano Buendia set to miss most, if not all, of this season due to injury, we’re already an option down in that department, and so green-lighting an exit for Coutinho as we aim to compete on multiple fronts this year would seem like a questionable decision.
As per Fabrizio Romano though, the Brazilian international is said to be finalising a loan move to Al Duhail, with the Qatari club set to cover his salary for the rest of this season.
Ultimately, this comes down to Emery’s judgement. The Villa boss evidently feels as though we’ll cope without Coutinho, and that should speak volumes and give us key insight into his view of the player himself having had close to a year now to assess him.
The former Liverpool and Barcelona ace has missed four of our six games so far this season due to a fresh injury blow, while he totalled 24 minutes of football in our first two Premier League games of the campaign.
Looking back to last season, he missed 14 of our last 15 outings due to injury, while he was an unused substitute in the game that he returned for away at Wolves in May.
In fact, Coutinho has only featured eight times under Emery, totalling 212 minutes of football under the Spanish tactician since he took charge, and so it’s fair to say that we’ve managed pretty well without him.
Emery himself was disappointed that he didn’t have the Brazilian at his disposal in the back end of last season, as it was the ideal time to work out how well he could fit into his preferred system and style of play.
However, Coutinho simply hasn’t been consistent enough in his availability, and with Villa needing reliable options that can deliver in what promises to be a gruelling campaign, he doesn’t appear to be a solution. Add to that the arrivals of Moussa Diaby and Nicolo Zaniolo this past summer, and he’s even fallen further down the pecking order.
In turn, Coutinho has not only become dispensable, but the opportunity to offload his wages even for a year is too good to ignore and will be a huge boost for Villa that goes some way to making up for the lack of a hefty transfer fee.
Of course, we all wanted it to work out. The early signs of promise and potential were exhilarating as he impressed after initially joining us on loan from Barcelona. However, since making that move permanent, he hasn’t been anywhere near good enough for a player with such an important role for us and on such significant wages.
One assist and no goals in 22 appearances last season tells a story in itself. While there will be disappointment if he leaves and it will be a shame to not hear his song in the stands anymore, Villa are arguably making the smart decision to offload him, even if only on loan, and Emery is better placed than anyone to be confident that it’s the right choice for us.
Should Villa keep Coutinho or is the club making the right decision to offload him?
📊 Philippe Coutinho. Speculation that he's on the verge of an exit, loan deal with his salary covered.
Right decision from Villa to move him on now?#avfc #UTV 🟣🔵🇧🇷
— Talk Villa (@thetalkvilla) September 6, 2023