The Philippe Coutinho Thread | Page 38 | Vital Football

The Philippe Coutinho Thread

Very good player but he’s not in the Ronaldo category, Ronaldo is a player who has demonstrably dragged teams to success almost on his own.


That's why he wasn't a success at Barcelona. They basically wanted him to replace Neymar on the left if their front 3. Unfortunately he's better centrally and he's probably a level below that calibre of player so it didn't work for anyone involved. For us he's probably, bar Grealish, the best player we've had in a long while.
 
That's why he wasn't a success at Barcelona. They basically wanted him to replace Neymar on the left if their front 3. Unfortunately he's better centrally and he's probably a level below that calibre of player so it didn't work for anyone involved. For us he's probably, bar Grealish, the best player we've had in a long while.

Neither is Neymar tbf but you're pretty much spot on. A lot of analysis on the issue at Barca focuses on how they were fundamentally different players. Coutinho was much more like everything else they already had (a creative passing type). So Coutinho was competing with Messi for playmaker and there is only one winner. Neymar is quick and he is a dribbler and aggressive runner, he stretches teams whereas Coutinho doesn't. Barca got stuck playing in front of backlines and not being able to get in behind because they had no pace upfront with Messi, Suarez and Coutinho.

Similar issue for us when you play Emi2 and Coutinho, they both only have one target - Watkins. I am hopeful the coaching staff recognizes the problem and that's why they've tried to get Bailey involved.
 
I think the loan fee was built into the final transfer payment? Also his wages at Barca must be astronomical?
As far as I'm aware that wasn't the original agreement, we had the option to buy him for something like £33m.
 
Incredible business if true, I read earlier in the week that we were seeking to get the fee reduced. Barca is are extremely desperate to get Coutinho off the wage bill given they are trying to sign Lewandowski.


If we've managed to haggle them down it could be that we're putting the extra money towards his wages which although won't be what he was on at Barca would almost certainly make him our highest paid player ever.

The other thing is that its almost certain that he really wants to sign for us as there must have been teams able to pay thst 33m fee and offer him higher wages. 7
 
Assume we’ll pay off a higher chunk of his Barcelona contract to offset the lower fee. Nonetheless a fee of £15m seems like decent business even if there are extra costs, as long as the guys in charge have sense checked the finances
 
15-20m EUROS so converted is 12-17m pounds which is the same rumoured price we're selling Targett for. BARGAIN!! It would be a great bit of business cos I don't think you could buy a squad player from the championship for that price!
 
Assume we’ll pay off a higher chunk of his Barcelona contract to offset the lower fee. Nonetheless a fee of £15m seems like decent business even if there are extra costs, as long as the guys in charge have sense checked the finances

We can call Purslow a blagger and a bit of a dope but financially he's a proper exec. And at least in Wes's case he knows how finances work so Purslow is going to be able to pull the wool over his eyes.
 
For that kind of money - we must sign him. Yes his wages will be the highest ever but what he offers us is worth it. Get a full pre-season into him, get him back to his best and we are a serious Premier League outfit on the rise. As mentioned the low transfer fee will offset his wages. Shirt sales will also put a big dent in the overall outlay - potentially bigger than the total sales we had for a certain no.10 the past few seasons. Our brand name will sky rocket in places like Brazil and the rest of the world. A name like Coutinho will also be a great marketing strategy to entice other top quality players to Villa, thus raising our club profile and improving our playing squad. Thank goodness we still don't have Deadly in charge - remember when we were poised to sign another Brazilian called Juninho from Middlesborough. I don't expect Champions League by the end of next season but 6th or 7th could be a realistic target. The pieces of the puzzle are falling into place at long last. We're revamping the stadium and increasing its capacity and players of the calibre of Coutinho will ensure sell out crowds over 50,000 for a good few years. Exciting times to be a Villa fan, we can finally look upwards at European football again and not over our shoulders and fighting relegation.
 
Even if true, he won’t be getting anywhere near that at the next Club he goes to. Lucky to get 1/3 of that figure.

150-200 sounds like a reasonable amount for the club to be paying. I am not having that Emi2 is the better player just yet. Phil has had a stop start career over the past 3 or 4 seasons. A proper pre-season and some better players around him should make a huge difference.