One of the biggest transfer deals of the January transfer window was undoubtedly Aston Villa's highly unexpected loan capture of Barcelona's £142million Philippe Coutinho.

Clearly the inspired deal bringing the 29-year-old Brazilian international back to the Premier League hung on the involvement of Villa's new head coach Steven Gerrard, following their playing days together at Liverpool, and the little magician has wasted little time in showing fans he more than still has what it takes to succeed in the English top flight with four goals and three assists to his name in only eight starting appearances and PA sports betting wouldn't be alone in giving you good odds on him improving that tally in the games that remain in the 2021/22 campaign.

Whilst he didn't have the best of times out in Spain following his big money move to the Catalan Giants, his 70 starting appearances still returned 28 goals and with him quickly and seamlessly slotting back into the pace of the Premier League, although Gerrard's side do have an optional buy clause in place for next summer and they will again be hoping that his relationship with Coutinho will be enough to seal the deal, his form will be attracting the attention of other potential suitors - especially with him apparently being available for a fee of only £33million.

Following his return to the English game, Tottenham Hotspur were quickly linked with having a potential interest in him for the off season and there was even some talk that they too had struck an optional buy clause agreement with Barcelona should Villa have ultimately passed on signing him - but those claims have been rebuffed from sources close to the club. However, in more recent times Arsenal have also been credited with having a strong interest in him as Mikel Arteta continues to try and improve the London side further and help turn them back into genuine title challengers once again.

It's highly unlikely that the North London duo will be the only sides linked with him, and whilst some sides battling in the lower half of the division can be discounted, out of those teams looking up the table it's only really Manchester City that can be discounted from having an interest owing to the calibre of players they already have available to them.

For the rest, and particularly at that price, Coutinho's quality and the uplift in a clubs points tally that would naturally result from his signing wouldn't even make him a gamble - it makes him an even more enticing prospect so we can certainly expect an uptick in transfer speculation as the summer begins to near.