£17m Aston Villa player has been told to apologise to Steven Gerrard

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Axed Aston Villa manager Steve Gerrard is owed an apology from Philippe Coutinho.

At least, that’s the view of former Villa attacker Gabby Agbonlahor.

Earlier this week, Aston Villa parted company with Gerrard following an 11-month stint in the Midlands, after the Liverpool icon quit his role at Rangers to replace Dean Smith.

A number of players hadn’t turned up for the 42-year-old manager this season and you have to say, Coutinho was one of them.

The former Barcelona maestro joined Aston Villa on a permanent basis during the summer for £17 million [The Mirror], after a stunning loan spell during the second half of last season.

This time around, the 30-year-old is yet to score or set up a single goal from 10 Premier League outings.

And as a result it’s no surprise to see Aston Villa 17th in the table, outside the relegation on the ‘goals scored’ column alone from Wolves.

And Agbonlahor believes that the Brazilian majorly let down his boss this season.

He told talkSPORT: “Coutinho was his man. Didn’t perform for him. He owes Gerrard an apology for me, the way he performed. Gerrard backed him.”

Is Coutinho at fault for Gerrard’s sacking?

In a word, no.

One of Gerrard’s jobs as Aston Villa manager was to motivate and if Coutinho was struggling to replicate his heroics of last season then it’s more than likely a problem relating to his motivation.

In an ideal world, every footballer would have immense self-motivation skills, but the truth is that most need a kick up the backside every now and again.

And if the player – any player – stopped responding to his coach, well that’s probably a reflection on the latter.