Aston Villa ‘intend to ask’ club and player for transfer discount

On Friday, we covered a couple of takes from the Spanish media on Philippe Coutinho and his start to life at Aston Villa.

Mundo Deportivo, a Catalan newspaper, explained that Barcelona were thrilled with the Brazilian’s good start under manager Steven Gerrard.

There was said to be confidence that even if Aston Villa didn’t use their €40m buying clause, then another club would come in and pay the fee, encouraged by seeing some flashes of form from Coutinho.

Mundo added that they even wouldn’t be surprised if Villa used their €40m option and then sold the player to make a quick profit, which seemed unlikely.

Saturday’s edition of Sport has a slightly different take.

They explain that Aston Villa, just like Barcelona, remain happy with the January deal, but it’s claimed the Birmingham club ‘intend to ask’ for a discount from the €40m figure.

They also intend to ask Coutinho himself to take a drop in his wages, to help a permanent transfer go through. There’s certainly no harm in asking Barcelona for a cheaper fee, because the €40m would still be there to fall back on should they say no.