Aston Villa have confirmed that Finn Azaz has put pen to paper on a contract extension and will join Plymouth Argyle on loan for the upcoming season.
The 22-year-old is a highly-rated talent at the club having joined us from West Brom in 2021, and he has since enjoyed loan spells at Newport County and Plymouth last season.
Sign up for the Talk Villa newsletter, a free weekly Villa round-up delivered straight to you!
Having contributed eight goals and 10 assists in 39 appearances last year, it’s hoped that he can build on that and continue to improve, as this will be another important year in his progress towards either breaking into the senior squad at Villa or earning a move elsewhere.
As per the club’s statement, Azaz has signed an extension and will re-join Plymouth on a season-long loan deal, and he’ll hope to now impress again as part of his development.
As with any young talent at the club, the hope and objective for all concerned is to try and put them in a position to flourish with the first-team squad to help us become more competitive in the long term.
However, that of course doesn’t always play out the way we want it to ideally, and so it’s a sensible move from Villa to agree on new terms to secure his long-term future and loan him out again, as ultimately if we do end up approving a permanent transfer next summer or beyond, we’ll hopefully secure a decent fee for Azaz.
Time will tell which path he goes, but for now his focus will be on impressing again in the upcoming campaign, as he’ll now step up a level and try and help Plymouth consolidate their place in the Championship, having helped them earn promotion last time round.
While Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Louie Barry have already secured temporary spells elsewhere, the expectation is that we’ll see more follow Azaz from our U21s squad in being loaned out for the new season.
