Arsenal have been handed a boost in their pursuit of one of the worlds best creative midfielders.
The Gunners finished the Premier League with the 16th most chances created, a shocking decline from the days of Cesc, Nasri, Hleb and co. creating tonnes of chances for our strikers to miss.. these days our strikers are scoring nearly everything from the few chances created by a dysfunctional midfield.
So some creativity is an essential addition to the team given Ozil has been dismissed from the current setup. Arise, sir Phil Coutinho. Whilst many think he is finished, the Brazilian only just turned 28 and albeit intermittently, he has shown a huge amount of quality in spells for Bayern Munich this season.
Now his agent Kia, best mates with Raul Sanllehi is desperate to bring Cout back to the Premier League. According to RAC1, a reliable source in Spain (as quoted by The Sun) said on Thursday that Arsenal and Barcelona are discussing a possible loan deal for the midfielder, which would see the salary shared between both club.
Coutinho currently earns £240,000 per week and it is being suggested that Arsenal and Barcelona would share those wages, with the Gunners likely to pay a one year loan fee on top.
Coutinho can be amazing, but his problem like many, is consistency. In 15 starts for Munich he has been named man of the match 4 times, but equally has dropped some poor performances. But his ability to score and assist would be more than welcome at the club, he has managed 8 goals and 6 assists in the Bundesliga this season, from just 1414 minutes. That’s a goal or assist every 101 minutes.