Aston Villa are reportedly in advanced talks with Manchester United over midfielder Youri Tielemans in what would be a major blow if he were to depart.
The 29-year-old joined us on a free transfer in 2023 and has gone on to make 134 appearances for the club, scoring 10 goals and providing 25 assists in those outings.
However, his influence goes well beyond the numbers as he has been a fundamental figure for Unai Emery over the past three years in dictating and controlling proceedings in midfield for us.
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However, it appears as though he could be on the verge of leaving, as David Ornstein reports that Villa and Man Utd are in advanced talks over a deal for the Belgian international, and it appears as though they could be looking to finalise the agreement in the coming days.
He adds that Villa wanted to offer Tielemans a new contract with his current deal set to expire in 2028, but we were unable to finalise an offer due to our ongoing financial restrictions and the subsequent need to see how things played out.
In turn, it seem as though either we have to make a sacrifice when it comes to wages or Tielemans has been offered an alternative option in the meantime, and we could now be bidding farewell to our midfield maestro soon.
Should the exit materialise, it would be a huge blow to lose him given how influential and impactful he has been in midfield for us, and breaking up his partnership with Boubacar Kamara will be hard to fix and replace, particularly with Amadou Onana now set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to injury too.
Further, John Percy has now reported that Tielemans has a release clause of £35m in his contract, and so it seems as though we’ll be getting a decent fee for a 29-year-old, but ultimately he is worth so much more than that and that will undoubtedly add to the disappointment for many.
Time will tell how the situation plays out with Villa set to spend a club record transfer fee to sign Johan Manzambi to bolster our midfield, as per Percy above, but it looks as though there is going to be a significant reshuffle in that department this summer.
