Despite the announcement this morning that Aston Villa had signed Coutinho from Barcelona on loan, reports from Spain are emerging that it won’t be official before Tuesday.
That comes from Cadena COPE journalist Helena Condis, who took to Twitter to report that ‘the agreement on the loan won’t be closed’ until then.
That’s because the Brazilian is ‘positive’ with Covid-19 and ‘cannot travel to England’.
Sources close to the negotiation have told her that ‘with no medicals, the deal won’t close’.
Therefore, with his salary still on the Barcelona wage bill, the Catalan side cannot register Ferran Torres, whom they bought off Manchester City a few days ago.
👉 COUTINHO: El acuerdo de su cesión no se va a cerrar hasta el martes. Es positivo y no puede viajar a Inglaterra. Fuentes de la negociación me apuntan que hasta que no pase revisión médica, no se cierra. Aún no se puede inscribir a Ferran Torres. Ctdo @partidazocope @tjcope
— Helena Condis Edo (@HelenaCondis) January 7, 2022
The Spaniard has had to wait for the club to sort out a few exits to finally get on a team sheet, and there was a belief Coutinho’s to Aston Villa would be enough.
Some reports suggest it isn’t, but we’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, Aston Villa fans will have to wait patiently before seeing their new player at Villa Park next to Steven Gerrard.
