{"id":382014,"date":"2022-01-06T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/?p=382014"},"modified":"2022-01-06T05:02:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T05:02:44","slug":"sources-aston-villa-in-pole-position-to-sign-coutinho-ahead-of-arsenal-deal-could-be-agreed-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/sources-aston-villa-in-pole-position-to-sign-coutinho-ahead-of-arsenal-deal-could-be-agreed-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources: Aston Villa in pole position to sign Coutinho ahead of Arsenal – deal could be agreed this week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aston Villa are the frontrunners to sign Philippe Coutinho and could even agree a deal this week, Football Insider<\/strong> has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Midlands giants are one of a number of Premier League clubs who have made contact with Barcelona about a deal for the playmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recruitment source has told Football Insider<\/strong> that Villa are currently in pole position to sign him this month ahead of Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Barcelona want \u00a350million for their club-record signing, who joined from Liverpool for \u00a3146m in January 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish giants will not get anywhere near their asking price this month given the attacking midfielder’s mixed form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Barcelona are willing to sell and need to raise funds after the \u00a355m signing of Ferran Torres from Man City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steven Gerrard is leading Villa’s pursuit for a player he knows well from his days at Liverpool, where they were teammates when Brendan Rodgers was the manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That relationship could prove pivotal in the final decision of Coutinho as he weighs up the options in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal are also believed to be pushing strongly for a deal as they look to strengthen their attacking options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coutinho<\/a> was regarded as one of the finest playmakers in the world during his days at Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But he has struggled to live up to his transfer fee at Barcelona, and also had a season on loan at Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been on the fringes of the Barca side this season, clocking up just 608 minutes from 16 appearances in all competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other news, Aston Villa have made contact over signing Newcastle United target with \u00a330m price tag<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aston Villa are the frontrunners to sign Philippe Coutinho and could even agree a deal this week, Football Insider has learned. The Midlands giants are one of a number of Premier League clubs who have made contact with Barcelona about a deal for the playmaker. A recruitment source has told Football Insider that Villa are …<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverart":"\"\"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","_grv_disable_ads":false,"grv_featured_categories":""},"categories":[114,5582,7],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382014"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382028,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382014\/revisions\/382028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.footballinsider247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}