Aston Villa are reportedly set to agree on new terms with Lamare Bogarde to extend his contract with us, before sending him out on loan this season.
The 20-year-old has impressed at youth level to subsequently emerge as one of our top prospects over the last couple of years, and has gone on to make a positive impression in pre-season so far this summer having also travelled with the senior squad to the USA.
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While the Netherlands U20s international is versatile and can play in either defence or midfield, he faces stiff competition in both positions to make a breakthrough with the first-team given the quality we have in those departments currently, and so Villa appear to have a plan in mind to maximise his potential.
According to Fabrizio Romano, we’re set to extend Bogarde’s contract and will find the most suitable loan spell for him to continue to gain experience and develop his game at a higher level.
He adds that Villa have rejected an approach from Nottingham Forest for him, and so it’s clear that we rate him highly and believe that he’s capable of either having a future with us, or he can perhaps become more valuable in the coming years and will be an important option to secure a sizeable profit.
Bogarde has looked promising in his appearances against Walsall and Spartak Trnava so far this summer, while he has already been out on loan previously having had two stints with Bristol Rovers.
It’s imperative that Villa get the next temporary destination spot on to ensure he is given the best possible chance to take that next step in his career, and so it will be fascinating to see what level that’s at as we’re surely looking at Championship clubs and above if he is to remain in England.
Unai Emery has shown that he will bring through our youngsters if they’re good enough, with the likes of Kaine Kesler-Hayden, Josh Feeney and Sil Swinkels also on our pre-season tour in the USA, and with quotas to fill in terms of homegrown players to consider too moving forward, time will tell if Bogarde is able to establish himself at Villa in the coming years, or if he follows a different path that we’ve seen several other top Villa youngsters take over the past year and seal a permanent move elsewhere to give us a financial boost.