Aston Villa striker Cameron Archer has reportedly attracted interest from both Sheffield Utd and Luton Town as talk of an exit continues to build.
The expectation for most of the summer has been that the 21-year-old would be an important part of Unai Emery’s plans this season having featured throughout pre-season coupled with our lack of depth behind Ollie Watkins.
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Archer has impressed at every stage of his career thus far and has scored goals consistently, whether that was with us at youth level, during loan spells with Preston North End and Middlesbrough or with England U21s.
In turn, it had been hoped that the next step would be to prove himself at senior level for us, but it doesn’t appear as though that will be the case this season.
As per the Athletic last week, it was reported that Villa are open to the sale of Archer and that there were a number of interested parties.
Sky Sports have now reported that both Sheffield Utd and Luton are keen on the talented youngster, and while it’s added that he prefers a move to another Premier League club, Villa are open to selling on a permanent basis.
That in turn has led to a standstill in talks with Luton who prefer a loan move, while it’s also reported that there are a host of Championship clubs who are also keen.
It remains to be seen if an agreement is reached with either of the clubs named above or with any other for that matter, while Villa will surely insist on the inclusion of a buy-back clause, as they’ve reportedly done with Aaron Ramsey who is said to be close to joining Burnley.
While it would be disappointing to see Archer leave, the transfer fee involved would be an important financial boost for us to balance the books this summer with FFP in mind, but having that option to bring him back is crucial.
If he were to impress, which there is a high level of confidence that he will, Villa can assess him and if we feel he’s truly ready at that point, we will hopefully be able to re-sign him for a sensible fee.
That said, should he leave this month, that will almost certainly see Villa step up their activity in terms of incomings, as that would leave us with just Jhon Duran as competition and depth for Watkins, and that surely would be too big a risk if we want to compete for trophies and a top-seven finish in the Premier League.