Jordan makes ‘bit of a pup’ claim as Villa weigh up Coutinho bid

Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan insists the only winners since Philipp Coutinho has left Liverpool are the Reds.

The Brazilian left Anfield in 2018 to join La Liga giants Barcelona in a deal worth £142m but the move did not go to plan for the Catalan giants.

Coutinho scored 26 goals in 106 appearances for Barca and even spent a year out on loan in 2019-20 at Bayern Munich.

Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard are on the wrong trajectory together

And the Brazil international now finds himself out on loan again Aston Villa, who he joined in the January transfer window.

Barcelona and Villa agreed a £33m optional future fee if the Premier League club wanted to make the move permanent in the summer – but, with his performances dipping in recent weeks, Villa will have to think long and hard about it.

Coutinho has contributed four goals and three assists at Villa in the Premier League but he hasn’t provided a goal or an assist in his last five matches for Steven Gerrard’s side.

And Jordan admits he “would have reservations” about signing Coutinho if he was Villa and he hopes the 29-year-old can put in some impressive peformances before the end of the season.

Jordan said on talkSPORT: “I think it was a really clever signing because it cost them nothing to get him, they took a fraction of his wages, it looked on paper like a wonderful headline piece of business when really and truly it cost Villa £3m quid, maybe £4m, for a period of time – probably not even that – and I thought that was really smart business.

“It gave them a little bit of a lift, it made it feel like [Steven] Gerrard has got the gold-dust to attract the alluring players around the world because this player wanted to come and play for him.

“In the bigger