Aston Villa are reportedly close to agreeing a deal with Newcastle United for the transfer of Jacob Ramsey, in a deal worth £40m.
The 24-year-old is a product of our Academy and has gone on to make 167 appearances for the first-team, scoring 17 goals and providing 19 assists.
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While he has shown real promise and quality at times to establish himself as a key figure in the squad, injuries and a lack of consistency have been issues for the Villa midfielder, with Unai Emery continuing to show faith in him and give him plenty of opportunities to take that next step.
However, it looks as though his time at Villa could be coming to an end, as Fabrizio Romano reports that Villa and Newcastle are close to reaching an agreement over the £40m transfer of Ramsey to our Premier League rivals, with the player himself said to be keen on the move to Tyneside over other touted options, after reports earlier on Tuesday suggested that the club have failed to agree terms with him on a new contract.
On one hand, it will be such a shame to see ‘one of our own’ leave the club, particularly given that there is still so much untapped potential there in him and it had been hoped that he would go on to have a long and successful career in a Villa shirt.
In contrast, as mentioned above, given those injury troubles and the inability to show enough consistency, particularly in the final third where his goal contributions simply haven’t been high enough season on season for a player of his quality and what we need in such a key position, for Villa to bank £40m and hopefully go on to reinvest that in a potential upgrade in the role, could prove to be smart business from the club.
From Ramsey’s perspective, it could be a move that he needs for a fresh start to get his career going too, and so it may well end up being a sensible solution for all concerned.
It remains to be seen if the deal gets done, but based on the reporting above, it certainly sounds as though it’s heading that way, and it will be intriguing to see what Villa opt to do in the remainder of the transfer window to fill that void and ensure that we have an improved attacking unit for the upcoming campaign.
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