Aston Villa boss Gerrard makes his position on Coutinho clear
“We want Coutinho here,” the Aston Villa boss replied when asked about the Brazilian player after his sides away win at Burnley.
Philippe Coutinho’s future for next season is still up in the air. The Brazilian central midfielder is still officially a FC Barcelona player but yesterday, Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard made his position clear on the Brazilian international.
After Villa’s 1-3 win away to Burnley, speaking in the post-game press conference, Gerrard stated: “We want Coutinho here”. Coutinho was a substitute in the game against Burnley but Gerrard made it clear that “Philippe has understood. He’s played a lot of games back-to-back”.
Salary stumbling block
Coutinho arrived at Aston Villa on loan at the beginning of the season with a non-mandatory option to buy with the price set by the Camp Nou side being 40 million euro. Villa need to work on their sums with the fee not being the major stumbling block but the player’s high salary as Coutinho currently commands a salary of 575,000 euro gross per week.
The only way that the Brazilian could stay with the Birmingham based side centres on a massive salary reduction and local press claim that the midfielder would have to settle for the 135,000 euro per week that Jack Grealish was on before moving to Man City.