Aston Villa have reportedly rejected a loan offer from Leeds United for Emiliano Buendia, and have decided to keep the Argentine ace in the squad this season.
The 28-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan at Bayer Leverkusen after recovering from a serious knee injury, and he went on to impress during pre-season this past summer to stake his claim for a role at Villa.
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However, speculation has refused to go away over his future as an exit was never really entirely ruled out, but it appears as though it finally has now.
According to The Telegraph’s John Percy, Villa have not only rejected a loan offer from Leeds for Buendia, but have also now taken the decision to keep him at the club for this season.
After coming off the bench on Sunday night in our defeat to Crystal Palace and having made a positive impact, coupled with the fact that he has made no secret of wanting to be at Villa and has remained committed throughout despite the exit talk, it’s great to hear that he will stay with us and hopefully play a vital squad role this year.
Villa will hope to recover from a poor start to the campaign and compete across four competitions, and as we’ve seen in pre-season and when he’s come off the bench in our opening three Premier League games, Buendia can offer us something different in the final third and will provide competition and depth.
Naturally, he has to improve on his decisiveness in front of goal with just 10 goals and nine assists in 99 appearances for the club since he joined us in 2021, but if he can do that with the quality that we’re trying to add to the group on deadline day, we’ll hopefully rediscover our goalscoring touch sooner rather than later.
With the expected signings of Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliott on Monday, there will be increased competition for places again in the Villa XI, but Unai Emery will no doubt lean on his entire squad as the season progresses, as he’ll relish having different tactical solutions for different games, with Buendia hopefully making a vital contribution along the way.
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