Phillipe Coutinho

[pedrodelawasp]

I think Gerrard will get a tune out of him in the short term. They’ve missed that spark since Grealish has gone and he can play the same role.

He’ll score a couple from outside the area cutting onto his right foot from the left wing and that will prompt a few calls for “why didn’t we sign him?”

I think it’s a wise move not to. Seen a few links with perisic recently. I think conte would prefer a player little him in attack.

If we’re going to sign a player on a short term deal, perhaps past their prime, that can score a few cutting in from the flanks I know of a certain Welshman… ?

I just think we should be going for a Florian Wirt or a Dani Olmo in the summer rather than taking punts on Coutinho, Isco or Griezmann

Wirtz has huge potential, I think. Olmo is a bit older and perhaps more likely to be able to step in and be a difference maker right away. Like them both, though, and would welcome either signing.

 

[Tucker]

There's a reason why no top clubs were in for him.

Yes he may turn out brilliantly and everyone will be like 'see you should have signed him', but there's a higher chance he does nothing at all.

What I will say though, is we have a real lack of technical ball players in our side, even Villa have more than us with Buendia and now Coutinho.

We are crying out for some technicality in our side.

I'm sick of seeing our players struggle to control and pass the football.

So of all the bigger clubs, maybe we could have used someone like him, but then Conte doesn't really play a 10.

We obviously have our plan, and he wasn't in it.

Yeah, if he’s going to a club of Villa’s level it really tells a story. Like others have said, he could be a good signing for Villa, but I’m not disappointed we didn’t sign him.

 

[PeeEyeEmPee]

Anyone not disappointed at signing him doesnt have faith in the ability of Conte to transform players

Is Conte a magician that I've just been unaware of all this time? If he is, then there's no need to dip into the transfer market at all, as we're already full to the brim with duds requiring transformation.

 

[SE Spurs]

He's really done very little in the last few seasons. But less than 50% of his current wages and an option to buy, not obligation, is a very good deal for Villa.

 

[HoltbiusMac]

Anyone not disappointed at signing him doesnt have faith in the ability of Conte to transform players

Does this also include Conte himself seeing as he seemingly didn't want him? If we assume Conte can just improve any player we could just sign anyone. In fact sod it, keep the squad as it is Conte is a magician he can improve them all. The next two windows are about providing Conte with players that he thinks he can improve, if we have strong signals that Conte wants a player and we don't provide him with them then sure slate away but you can't get your knickers in a twist about every player we don't sign.

 

[greavesy461]

Hopefully he bangs a few in against Man Utd.

 

[Fredo]

Does this also include Conte himself seeing as he seemingly didn't want him? If we assume Conte can just improve any player we could just sign anyone. In fact sod it, keep the squad as it is Conte is a magician he can improve them all. The next two windows are about providing Conte with players that he thinks he can improve, if we have strong signals that Conte wants a player and we don't provide him with them then sure slate away but you can't get your knickers in a twist about every player we don't sign.

No the difference with Coutinho is he isnt shit just has been on bad form, unlike a lot of our players who are actually shit, if Conte wanted him I'm sure as hell he'd be great.

 

[Scorpio666]

£12m loan fee and over £5m in wages for just under 5 months seems expensive to me with no guarantee that he'll regain his spark.

 

[glacierSpurs]

Same as Trippier signed for the barcodes, they may not be that fantastic now, but I don't think anyone can deny they still can contribute significantly for at least another 2 seasons.

And when we consider how both of them are upgrades in our team IMHO, possibly even in the 1st XI, barcodes and Villa have done very good business in these two.

I am personally disappointed we didn't try for Coutinho...

 

[Kingellesar]

I'm glad we didn't get him, I don't think he is anywhere near the level he was when he was with Liverpool or on loan at Bayern. He suits a team like Villa where he can go and be the star man.

 

[Yiddo100]

Some slightly odd news from Percy from latest article

“To put Coutinho's signing into some context, he was identified as the first target for Hansi Flick if he had agreed to join Tottenham over the summer.
Flick was manager at Bayern during Coutinho's loan spell in the 2019/20 campaign and, during talks with Tottenham, said the playmaker would be his No 1 target before talks over the position collapsed.”

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Some slightly odd news from Percy from latest article

“To put Coutinho's signing into some context, he was identified as the first target for Hansi Flick if he had agreed to join Tottenham over the summer.
Flick was manager at Bayern during Coutinho's loan spell in the 2019/20 campaign and, during talks with Tottenham, said the playmaker would be his No 1 target before talks over the position collapsed.”

Huh. Strange. Would have been better than Nuno

 

[Stoof]

Anyone not disappointed at signing him doesnt have faith in the ability of Conte to transform players

What?

 

[Russ1201]

Fair play to Villa in heavily backing Gerrard with this one.

Now our board need to do the same with Conte…

Yet again i miss the optimistic rating...... for the last part of statement.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I like how Gerrard has described him as a "serial winner". He was only a bit-part player for pretty much every trophy he's won, at clubs who were consistently winning those trophies before and after him, but failed to win a single trophy during a 5 year spell as a key player at Liverpool. He was even out injured while Brazil won the last Copa America...

Don't get me wrong, he's a decent player who can improve Villa even without rediscovering his best form, but "serial winner" is a bit of a stretch.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

There's a reason why no top clubs were in for him.

Yes he may turn out brilliantly and everyone will be like 'see you should have signed him', but there's a higher chance he does nothing at all.

What I will say though, is we have a real lack of technical ball players in our side, even Villa have more than us with Buendia and now Coutinho.

We are crying out for some technicality in our side.

I'm sick of seeing our players struggle to control and pass the football.

So of all the bigger clubs, maybe we could have used someone like him, but then Conte doesn't really play a 10.

We obviously have our plan, and he wasn't in it.

If we're going to take a gamble on an attacking player, I'd much rather have Bale back. Would fit our system better too, as we don't play with a no.10 CAM (Coutinho is less suited to CM than Dele, so we wouldn't be signing him to play there).

 

[spursfan77]

Villa paying 65% of his Barcelona wages with a option to buy at €40m euros in the summer. He’s 29.

 

[blodge99]

Always struck me as a bit of a 'Match of the Day' player I.e. when they condense the highlights he looked world class, but in effect those 2/3 clips/shots etc were all he'd done during the match. Brother in law is a LFC fan and thought a bit more of him than me, but did concede that he goes missing for long periods.

Only averaged just over 40 mins a match during his spell at Barca...Will be a challenge for Villa to get his levels up to being able to complete 80/90 mins week in next four months.

Obviously a very talented lad as a footballer, but not sure we could afford to carry a luxury player like him in Contes set up, so can't say I'm too disappointed we didn't get him (if we were ever serious ?‍)

 

[Frozen_Waffles]

For me he is all hype, he is good at scoring wonder goals but when watching him at Liverpool he rarely did anything in the actual game.

He is not a playmaker, nor is he a hard worker. If you dominate proceedings and you need to pull something out of the bag, he is an interesting signing.

As we only dominate sides who are down to ten men, we would be carrying him almost every game (think we have enough of them!)

Look at how son is playing at the moment and that is how I would see him, just with less running.

A luxury player if ever I saw one, there is a reason he is going to villa and not one of the top clubs.

 

[SUIYHA]

Always struck me as a bit of a 'Match of the Day' player I.e. when they condense the highlights he looked world class, but in effect those 2/3 clips/shots etc were all he'd done during the match. Brother in law is a LFC fan and thought a bit more of him than me, but did concede that he goes missing for long periods.

Only averaged just over 40 mins a match during his spell at Barca...Will be a challenge for Villa to get his levels up to being able to complete 80/90 mins week in next four months.

Obviously a very talented lad as a footballer, but not sure we could afford to carry a luxury player like him in Contes set up, so can't say I'm too disappointed we didn't get him (if we were ever serious ?‍)

Completely agree with all of this - very much a MOTD player. Yes he'd ping in an absolute worldie every so often but he'd also blast the ball over the bar from 30 yards a few times a game and his stats were never as good as Eriksen's who was playing for us at the time.

Clearly a very talented player and I wanted him badly when Mourinho was here as he'd have been far more suited to the formation we were playing at the time, but I just don't see where he'd fit into a Conte side, plus he's played less football than Lo Celso in the last three years and we all know what GLC's injury problems have been like...