Aston Villa are reportedly close to sealing a deal to sign Philippe Coutinho on a permanent transfer from Barcelona.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Steven Gerrard's side are ready to make Coutinho's loan move permanent for a fee in the region of £20million. He would become their first summer addition as Gerrard begins to rebuild the Villa squad ahead of the 2022/23 season.
Champions League chasing Arsenal and Tottenham have also been linked with Coutinho in recent weeks after scoring four goals and grabbing three assists in 15 appearances so far. With Ferran Torres and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang joining in January, it does not appear Coutinho has a future under Xavi at Camp Nou.
However, after an electric start to life at Villa, Coutinho has failed to register a goal or an assist in his last seven games. His last strike came in the 3-0 win at Leeds United after scoring against Southampton, Manchester United and in the reverse clash with the Whites.
Subsequently, Coutinho was left out of the Villa starting XI for the first time since January in their 3-1 win over Burnley on Saturday. Emiliano Buendia came back into the side and impressed, grabbing a goal and an assist as Gerrard's side recorded their second successive win.
Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins also found the back of the net while Coutinho came on for the final 12 minutes to see out the victory at Turf Moor. Villa are next in action tonight when they take on Coutinho's former club Liverpool - the first time he has faced Jurgen Klopp in the Premier League since leaving in January 2018.
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As well as signing Coutinho, Gerrard also wants to bring in a defensive midfielder. He doesn't see Douglas Luiz as his first-choice no.6 next season and his hoping to recruit a 'Fabinho-like' player.
Gerrard told Birmingham Live : "Yeah, we've spoken about it a lot. I think it is a specialist position, certainly in certain games. It doesn't mean we'll need one all of the time but, certainly in the system that we've used a lot since I've come in, the No.6 sits right in the middle of that.
"We want them to be a specialist in that area, we want them to have certain attributes but, yeah, we knew Calum (Chambers) could do that before we made the signing. We knew he could play right back, centre-back but, also, he played a full season for Fulham as a No.6."
