Aston Villa hailed as they reach £4m+ Philippe Coutinho amid Fabrizio Romano update

We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park…

Alan Hutton is pleased to see Aston Villa get Philippe Coutinho off their wage bill after the Brazilian joined Al-Duhail on loan this week.

Villa confirmed via their official Twitter account on Friday (8 September) that Coutinho, 31, had joined the Qatari Stars League club on a season-long basis.

Fabrizio Romano added that Coutinho’s salary will be 100 per cent covered by Al-Duhaul during the duration of his temporary stay in the Middle East.

Coutinho was among the biggest earners at Villa Park, if not the biggest.

The Mirror reported last May that Coutinho’s deal at B6 is worth £125,000-a-week and as there are 32 weeks until the end of the Qatari season, Villa have saved at least £4million.

Hutton is glad that Villa are no longer paying that for someone who has struggled to fit into Unai Emery’s system and has also been plagued by injury issues.

“I thought he had a bad injury. I don’t know how long he was going to be out for so it’s an interesting one,” Hutton told Villa News.

“I think Aston Villa will be happy to get that sizeable wage off the wage bill.

“It’s a shame it didn’t work out for him and there was always going to be that question mark, ‘could he get back to the level we saw him at with Liverpool?’. It was going to be difficult now he’s 31 and with a lot of expectation on his shoulders.

“He just couldn’t match what he showed the first time around, which is a shame.

“Obviously, injuries have set him back and he was always going to find it difficult to force his way into that Villa squad with the way they play.

“It was probably the right move for him at this moment in time.”

In other Aston Villa news, the club has made a Manchester City-esque transfer shift after a deal of “pure profit” was completed.