Philippe Coutinho’s nightmare after Liverpool transfer, contract to be ‘cancelled’

Six-and-a-half years after Philippe Coutinho left Liverpool in a £142million move to Barcelona, ​​the Brazilian is closing in on a forgettable chapter in his career this summer.

Coutinho, who turned 32 earlier this week, is likely to leave Aston Villa for good in this current transfer window, approaching a year since his last move for the club. Despite having two years left on his contract, which pays around £135,000-a-week, the two sides are negotiating to terminate the deal.

The attacking midfielder is in talks to return to boyhood club Vasco da Gama 14 years after first leaving. Coutinho has spent most of his time at Anfield, making over 200 appearances for Liverpool. So where did it all go wrong?

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After playing over 100 times for Barcelona either side of a season-long loan at Bayern Munich, a campaign in which the Bavarians won the treble, Coutinho left the Catalan club for a return to the Premier League midway through the fourth season. The move came months after former Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard became Villa’s new head coach, and he soon looked like an inspired signing.

Coutinho scored on his debut as a substitute against Manchester United and added four more goals that season, including one on the final day against Manchester City. Villa made the move permanent before that season ended, with the player taking a sizeable pay cut to facilitate the transfer.

But the following season did not go according to plan. Gerrard was sacked before the end of October, dropping Coutinho in his last away game at Fulham.

After the arrival of Unai Emery, the Brazilian started just one more game, a 4-2 defeat to Arsenal, in which he scored his last goal for Villa. Injury problems then settled as a hamstring problem kept Coutinho out for the rest of the season.

A layoff at the start of the following campaign saw the playmaker come off the bench for the first two games, but he was soon sidelined by injury again. Then last September, Coutinho joined Qatari club Al-Duhail for the remainder of the season.

The Brazilian has remained largely injury-free, playing 22 times and scoring seven goals, his best return since spending the season with Bayern. But a homecoming beckons the player two years after he last represented his country as many of his former team-mates prepare to regain the Copa America in the United States.

And earlier this week, journalist Bruno Andrade claimed that Aston Villa had agreed to end his current contract and had given him a “free ride” to return to Brazil and join Vasco da Gama.