Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is willing to let one of the club’s highest earners leave for free this summer to get him off the wage bill.
Even with qualification for the Champions League, Aston Villa need to be careful with their business this summer to ensure they do not breach UEFA and Premier League spending rules.
That means Unai Emery is likely to have to see at least one of the his most valuable assets leave this off-season in order to have the funds to reinvest in the squad ready for a crack at the Champions League.
The likes of Diego Carlos, Douglas Luiz and Jacob Ramsey have all been named as players the club could sell to relieve some financial pressure, but latest reports suggest Emery may give the green light for one player to leave the club for free to ensure a swift exit.
Aston Villa could terminate Philippe Coutinho contract
Philippe Coutinho‘s Villa career looks over after the Brazilian spent the 2023/24 season on loan at Qatari side Al-Duhail.
Although Coutinho made 20 Premier League appearances under Emery in the 2022/23 season, it was clear he was not in the Spanish manager’s plans and with few clubs willing to match his £135k-a-week wages he was left with no choice but to move to Qatar.
Now, with Coutinho’s loan coming to an end and Villa not wanting to have to pay such a high weekly wage to a player that will not feature, the club are desperately trying to facilitate an exit for the 31-year-old.
With that in mind, the latest update from Brazilian football expert Bruno Andrade on ‘X’ is that Villa are discussing the possibility of terminating Coutinho’s contract in order to get him off the wage bill immediately to help them with FFP.
Andrade posted (translated to English): “Aston Villa discusses contract termination, and Philippe Coutinho is close to returning to Vasco; attacking midfielder wants to return to Brazil and gave total preference to Cruz-Maltino, with whom he already has ongoing conversations; name is more than approved by new coach Álvaro Pacheco.”
Philippe Coutinho could have done so much more at Aston Villa
If Coutinho is to leave for free as looks most likely, his Villa career will forever be a tale of what might have been.
When the midlands side managed to secure his loan signing in January 2022 due to then-manager Steven Gerrard having played with Coutinho at Liverpool, Villa fans were rightly in disbelief.
This was a player who Liverpool had sold to Barcelona for £146 million just two years earlier and yet here he was at Villa Park.
Having impressed as he scored five goals and provided three assists in 19 league games on loan, Villa signed the diminutive Brazilian for just £17 million in the summer of 2022.
However, with Gerrard sacked just months later, Coutinho struggled to make an impact as Emery slowly phased out the 68-cap Brazil international.
Still only 31, Villa look set to rip up Coutinho’s contract despite it running until 2026 in a move that will see them save millions in wages.
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