Aston Villa are reportedly close to reaching an agreement with Roma over a deal for Leon Bailey, who is expected to join the Italian giants on an initial loan.
The 28-year-old has been linked with an exit from Villa this summer after a difficult season last year in which he struggled to find form.
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While there’s no doubting Bailey’s desire and commitment, his injury troubles, a lack of confidence and inconsistency led to him playing a limited part in our campaign, having managed just two goals and four assists in 38 appearances across all competitions.
It came after he enjoyed a brilliant campaign the year prior, but unfortunately, it looks as though his time at Villa could be coming to an end as we need more quality from those operating in the final third.
As per Fabrizio Romano, Villa and Roma are now close to reaching an agreement for the Jamaican international after positive talks on Saturday night, with Bailey showing a preference to move to the Italian capital over interest shown from Spain.
Based on the reporting, it certainly sounds as though a deal is now imminent, with Italian journalist Orazio Accomando previously noting that it could be an initial loan with a €4m fee, and an option to buy included in the agreement to sign Bailey outright next summer for €16m.
While it would benefit Villa to pocket those fees and remove Bailey’s salary off the wage bill, it could be the ideal move for the winger too as it gives him a fresh start in a new environment to hopefully rediscover his best form.
From our perspective though, it remains to be seen if that opens the door for us to be in a position to bring in a reinforcement to help fill that void, as although Unai Emery still has a number of options at his disposal in that department, it could risk leaving us short as we look to compete across four competitions again this season.
It’s been a difficult summer for Villa in the transfer market due to the need to comply with the various financial regulations, but the expectation is that there could still be movement in the latter stages of the window to address the issues that we still have. albeit perhaps most likely in the form of loans.
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