By Safiu Kehinde
La Liga giants Barcelona have revealed their dire intention to offload forward Philippe Couthino from Camp Nou as they seek an 18-month loan for the Brazilian to Aston Villa.
In an effort to relieve themselves of financial burden, the Blaugrana intend to capitalize on Aston Villa’s interest in Couthino who has 18 months left on his contract. While Aston Villa’s plan is to recruit him on loan till the end of the season, Barcelona desire a loan offer that will run till the end of the Brazilian’s contract.
Thus, the Catalans are trying to convince Aston Villa into agreeing an 18-month loan for the out-of-favor forward who has enjoyed a poor spell at Camp Nou ever since his big money move from Liverpool.
Signed in 2018 by then Barcelona Manager, Ernesto Valverde, Couthino’s dream move turned out to be a nightmare. He made a total of 58 appearances in his first season with 11 goals scored across all competition. His first season with Barcelona was wrecked with injury crisis that saw him laid off for a long time.
In 2019/2020 season, he was loaned to Bayern in an effort to revive his career. Yet, an ankle problem kept him on the sideline for 62 days, missing nine Bayern Munich game in the process. Meanwhile, following his recovery, Couthino made some stellar performance for the Bavarians, winning the Champions League in the process.
Following his Champions League win with Bayern, Barcelona decided to recall him back for the 2020/2021 season. Unfortunately, the injury prone Brazilian had to miss a total of 36 games for the Catalans following an hamstring injury that kept him out for 26 days and few weeks after recovering, he picked another injury – rupture of outer meniscus which condemned him on the sideline for 220 days.
With the recent signing of Ferran Torres from Manchester City, Barcelona are keen on offloading Couthino not only to relieve the club of his huge wages, but to also create room for the registration of the youngster.
