Newcastle United have their eyes set on Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho.
The 29-year-old is currently on loan at Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard’s side have an option to buy him for €40m after this season.
Sport state the La Liga are clear they will give Villa the priority to retain the attacking midfielder, provided they agree to pay the aforementioned figure, and his continuity depends on the Villans paying €40m to the Catalan club and also taking care of his full wages.
In addition to this, the Brazil international needs an important sporting project as aspires to win titles or be in the top positions in the league table. The ex-Liverpool star is grateful to Villa for giving him the opportunity and feels like a leader at Villa Park.
However, they must wait to find out whether Villa will exercise the purchase option and if not, ‘they will act’.
Eddie Howe’s side already approached the South American in January, but he ‘did not see the proposal at all clearly’.
Things have improved at St James’ Park since then and Newcastle’s new owners are now preparing the ‘mega project’ to compete for silverware.
According to Sport, they believe that Coutinho ‘can be the decisive factor’ to achieve it.
Therefore, Newcastle are ‘willing to pay a fortune’ to both Barcelona and Coutinho, to seal the deal in the summer.
That being said, this can only be possible if Villa don’t exercise the buying option.
