Exclusive: Third most expensive player in history now available from Aston Villa for just £8m

The third most expensive player in football history, Philippe Coutinho, has ended his loan spell at Al Duhail and will return to Aston Villa. 

However, according to CaughtOffside sources with knowledge of the situation, the English club and Unai Emery don’t consider him as part of their plans and are already working to let him go – temporarily or permanently – during the summer.

Aston Villa to cash in on Phillipe Coutinho

At the moment, the big obstacle to a definitive farewell seems to be his contract at Villa Park, which runs until 2026.

Coutinho is unwilling to lose money on his £135k per week deal by negotiating an early termination of the agreement.

Aston Villa, for their part, have set what they consider a fair price for him of around £6m-£8m.

Whilst that paltry figure shows how far his stock has fallen, it has piqued the interest of various clubs around the world.

Among those are some teams from Qatar and elsewhere in the Middle East, who could decide to bring him back there in the summer.

Vasco da Gama are also very interested in him and have already started to talk with the Brazilian player.

At the moment, however, Vasco consider the costs of the possible operation too high, when adding the amount of a transfer to the salary requested by Coutinho.

In any event, Aston Villa, to lighten their wage bill, are also willing to consider a loan but continue to hope that a club will take Coutinho on a permanent basis.