Aston Villa have confirmed that Evann Guessand has joined Crystal Palace on a season-long loan deal, with a conditional obligation to buy clause inserted into the agreement.
The 25-year-old struggled to showcase his best form in the first half of last season and was subsequently loaned to Palace for the second part of the campaign.
Albeit it wasn’t a drastic improvement, the Ivorian international did fare better at Selhurst Park, and although Palace opted against signing him outright earlier this summer, evidently they saw enough to believe that it was worth bringing Guessand back for a second spell.
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As per the club’s statement, Guessand has rejoined Palace on a season-long loan, and there is a conditional obligation to buy clause included in the deal.
It’s unclear at this stage what conditions must be met in order to make it a permanent transfer, but it may well be similar to last year’s agreement which depended on performance related aspects such as goal involvements.
While it had been hoped that Guessand could take his second chance this summer to prove that he could be a key part of our squad, particularly given the transfer fee spent on him last summer to bring him to the club from Nice, it was clear in the games that he featured in during pre-season that he was continuing to struggle to make a positive impact.
Despite playing in different roles, including a more central one leading the line, it just didn’t seem to work for him or the team, and so this makes perfect sense for all concerned to help him rediscover his best form, while Villa will benefit from reducing the wage bill and potentially making space for a new recruit.
It’s hoped that the conditional obligation is easy to meet if he has a productive loan stint this season, as it would be in everyone’s interests for this to turn into a permanent transfer next summer.