One of Aston Villa’s most expensive players could be leaving the Premier League outfit this summer with Serie A champions Napoli potential destination for Lucas Digne.
File this one under the ‘just hasn’t worked out’ category.
Lucas Digne, a regular for France and one of the Premier League’s finest full-backs at Everton, seemed too good to fail when he joined Aston Villa for a cool £25 million back in January 2022. How wrong we were.
His underwhelming performances in claret-and-blue played a part in Unai Emery bringing in Alex Moreno 12 months down the line; Digne starting only two of Villa’s final 14 games of last season.
Moreno, while one year older than Digne, appears to possess the speed and the tenacity Emery looks for in a full-back. He relishes making lung-busting runs to the byline too. In contrast to Digne, who’s preference for deeper, whipped crosses suited Dominic Calvert-Lewin perfectly at Everton but are less effective when paired with Ollie Watkins.
Aston Villa could sell former Everton star Lucas Digne already
Aston Villa, according to the Daily Mail, may now look to cut their losses rather than keep a £25 million, £100,000-a-week international gathering dust on the bench.
Benfica were linked earlier in the summer. The Portuguese giants remain in the market for a left-back, Manchester United’s Alex Telles making it clear that he is not willing to destroy his Porto legacy by joining his former club’s arch-rival.
But keep an eye on Napoli.
Luciano Spaletti’s replacement – Rudi Garcia – worked with Digne at both Lille and Roma.
In addition to Digne, Aston Villa may also look to move on Bertrand Traore, Marvelous Nakamba, Leander Dendoncker, Morgan Sanson, Wesley Moraes and Philippe Coutinho.
The latter, barely seen under Emery, has been linked with Besiktas, though the Istanbul-based outfit have played down the prospect of a move for the Brazil international.
“Not Coutinho. His annual salary is 7 million euros. Under these conditions, his transfer will not take place,” Besiktas’ sporting director, Ceyhun Kazanci, tells NTV Spor.
“I don’t know if things change in the last days of the transfer window. But it is impossible at the moment.”
Villa, meanwhile, are looking to bring in Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa Diaby after Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans. Digne’s fellow Frenchman could set Villa back a club-record £50 million.
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