Barcelona (Spain) – Barcelona got rid of one of its most prominent overloads by loaning Brazilian Felipe Coutinho to Aston Villa. The Catalan giant benefited temporarily by getting rid of Coutinho’s salary during the remainder of the season, in addition to financially benefiting from his loan return to face the stifling economic crisis.
Coutinho will play in the Villains shirt until the end of the season, with a non-compulsory purchase option. Coutinho played 106 games for Barcelona in various competitions, scoring 25 goals and providing 14 assists. The samba star fought to play in the Barcelona shirt and rebelled against his former club, Liverpool.
With the Reds’ management refusing to give up the first team star at the time, and not agreeing to Barcelona’s offers, the Brazilian began his journey with the rebellion by submitting a request to the club’s management asking him to leave.
Coutinho’s attempts also developed by refusing to participate with the team in the Champions League, although he was registered in the European list.
Liverpool eventually acquiesced and agreed to sell Coutinho to Barcelona in January 2018, for 160 million euros, to be the most expensive deal in the history of the Catalan club.
And when the idol of the masses presented one day in all the stadiums he set foot in, the Barcelona fans were well pleased with his joining the ranks of the first team, to compensate for the departure of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain.
But the Brazilian magician did not succeed in adapting to the Catalan team, and problems arose in his integration with the team and the lack of confidence of the coaches, other than the injuries he suffered, and his crises with the fans who used to call him whistles.
Coutinho decided to take an experiment outside the Camp Nou on loan to Bayern Munich in the 2019-20 season, but the Bavarian club did not activate the option to buy at the end of the season.
With Coutinho returning to the Blaugrana again, he failed to prove himself to coach Koeman, and even current coach Xavi Hernandez, to have to return again to the Premier League. The Brazilian sets his sights on restoring his level again and returning to brilliance in English courts again.
Coutinho is seeking to participate with the Brazilian national team in the World Cup finals in Qatar next winter, after the promise of Aston Villa coach and former Liverpool colleague Steven Gerrard encouraged him to sign the loan contract.
Gerrard prefers to resort to the 4-3-3 method, a system similar to the method of coach Jurgen Klopp in Liverpool, and believes that Coutinho can play either as a “number 8” midfielder or one of the sides of the attacking triangle.