Aston Villa are trying to replace Ezri Konsa before transfer deadline day - but does their primary target make any sense?
Prior to Sunday afternoon, there was always a chance that all the gloom surrounding Villa Park would prove to be overblown – that this was a team that was sufficiently well managed to survive a rash of injuries and being stripped bare in the transfer market. By Sunday evening, that started to look highly unlikely.
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An Aston Villa side missing a string of key players – including the departed Ezri Konsa and the seemingly soon-to-depart Ollie Watkins – was taken to pieces by Brighton in a 4-0 defeat that backed up the deepest fears of every doomsayer in the Midlands. The only good news is that the transfer window isn’t over yet. There is time to fix this.
Replacing Konsa, who joined Arsenal for an initial £51m on Friday, is an urgent priority. A week ahead of transfer deadline day, Aston Villa have quickly moved to try and sign at least one new centre-back, and new reports suggest that long-term target Joel Ordóñez is among their primary targets. But will Villa get their hands on the Ecuadorian before the window closes, and why might it be a strange move for the club to make in the midst of a desperate situation?
Will Aston Villa sign Joel Ordóñez before the transfer deadline?
Joel Ordóñez has 20 caps for Ecuador, including four at the 2026 World Cupplaceholder image
Joel Ordóñez has 20 caps for Ecuador, including four at the 2026 World Cup | Getty Images
Aston Villa have been linked with 22-year-old Ecuador international Ordóñez on a number of occasions since he first started making waves at Club Brugge in the 2023/24 season, but they have now made an official approach for the first time – according to The Athletic and a number of other media outlets.
They suggest that the signing of Ordóñez was initially dismissed as being too expensive in a summer in which the club’s spending will be curtailed by the need to comply with UEFA’s stringent spending rules – but with Konsa leaving and more than £50m now burning a hole in Villa’s pocket, the calculus appears to have changed.
The Athletic’s story doesn’t include details of the fee that Villa would have to pay to acquire Ordóñez, who moved to Belgium from Independiente del Valle in 2022 and established himself as a regular starter the following year, but previous reports have often cited figures in the region of £30-35m.
That seems likely to be a sensible approximation, although Club Brugge have a considerable amount of leverage in negotiations thanks to Ordóñez’s long-term contract, which runs until 2029.
Ordóñez is not the Villans’ only transfer target, although he has been tracked by the club’s scouting team for some time. They have already had an £18m bid for Southampton’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis rejected, but the 24-year-old England international was left out of his side’s squad this weekend while his future remains up for discussion.
It is unclear, as it stands, whether Aston Villa are keen to sign both Ordóñez and Harwood-Bellis or whether they intend to sign just one of the pair. But one or the other, if they do sign Ordóñez, they will be getting a very talented player – at a rather strange time.
Ordóñez is a fine defender – but signing him now makes little sense for Aston Villa
Chelsea and Liverpool are among other Premier League sides to have been linked with Ordóñezplaceholder image
Chelsea and Liverpool are among other Premier League sides to have been linked with Ordóñez | Getty Images
In many ways, Ordóñez has a very similar skillset to Konsa: Both are ball-playing defenders who are strong under pressure, are efficient on the ball and who are physically imposing enough to hold their own when more traditional defensive qualities are called for.
Ordóñez is taller and perhaps somewhat more effective in the air, while the more experienced Konsa is better against opposing ball carriers – he won an outstanding 73% of his ground duels last season, where Ordóñez merely managed a respectable but unexceptional 51% at a lower level.
Not that Ordóñez has given any of his admirers cause for concern about his defending as a whole. He’s strong, difficult to muscle out of the way, has good recovery speed and a fine tackler with a natural sense of both timing and positioning. He’s also superb against the high press, and seldom fails to pick out his pass when under duress.
It’s a list of attributes which have earned him a number of admirers, with Aston Villa just one of several clubs who have been linked with him over the past two years. On paper, he’s would make for a respectable replacement for Konsa who could fulfil the same role while having potential to grow further. There’s just one problem – he’s injured.
Ordóñez broke his metatarsal bone during Ecuador’s World Cup round of 32 defeat to Mexico, and has missed the start of the Belgian Pro League season as a result. Unable to train due to a protective boot, he isn’t expected to return to action for around two months.
In short, while Ordóñez is a perfectly reasonable long-term acquisition, making an attempt to sign him at this point in the season, when Aston Villa have some serious deficiencies to address and an urgent need for short-term solutions, is something of an eyebrow-raiser.
The 4-0 loss to Brighton made it pretty plain that this squad is not good enough to meet Aston Villa’s goals for the season with so many players either leaving or lost to injury. This may not be a club which has the luxury to make too many long-term decisions, and signing a player who may be unavailable until November likely qualifies as one of those. It’s an intriguing potential deal for a fine player at a very strange time.