Sky Sports reporter sheds light on Liverpool's interest in signing £380,000-a-week sensation 

Liverpool have been linked with a move to re-sign Philippe Coutinho this month but Aston Villa have been most strongly linked with the Brazilian, who earns a reported £380,000 per week.

We went in-depth to cover the links between Liverpool and Coutinho on Thursday with the journalist who first reported on Roberto Firmino to Anfield, the same journalist who said that the Reds hold some interest in signing the Barcelona star this month.

Of course, that does not necessarily mean that Coutinho is on his way to Merseyside as all signs point toward the former Liverpool star moving to Aston Villa and Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol has put everything into a slightly clearer picture for us.

The full Kaveh Solhekol transcript

"What we heard about an hour or so ago was that Philippe Coutinho had a choice between joining two Premier League clubs," he said.

"He was going to be making his decision before tomorrow afternoon. There have been lots of reports about Aston Villa being interested in signing him.

"Steven Gerrard was asked about it today and he didn't really give much away. He said I don't want to talk about a player who belongs to Barcelona at the moment.

"Speaking to people on the player's side of the deal my feeling about this is that he would be interested in joining Aston Villa.

"He knows people at Aston Villa for instance Steven Gerrard and Christian Purslow from his time at Liverpool.

"He feels that Aston Villa are an up and coming club. Steven Gerrard, Christian Purslow and the owners have big plans.

"He knows the quality of the Aston Villa squad. Players like Ollie Watkins, Emi Buendia and Emi Martinez as well.

"He feels if he was at Aston Villa and playing regularly he could help them get up the table and maybe get into Europe.

"Villa are not giving anything away.

"The other club I was told about was Liverpool," he said. "They are a club close to Coutinho's heart. We all know he played for Liverpool and left the club in controversial circumstances.

"They used the money they raised from selling him to Barcelona to buy players like Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker.

"That helped them to go on and win the title and the European Cup as well.

"But speaking to other people I am being told that Liverpool was not really on.

"And as far as Liverpool are concerned there was no interest in Coutinho although they may have been offered the chance to sign him on loan."