Aston Villa have reportedly held positive talks with Lucas Digne over a contract extension and he is set to be offered new terms.
The 32-year-old joined us from Everton in January 2022 and has since gone on to make 138 appearances for the club having established himself as a reliable option at left-back.
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However, doubts have emerged over the Frenchman’s future at Villa as he’s now in the final 12 months of his contract, and given he’s said to be one of the top earners at the club at a time when we’re under pressure to reduce our wage bill to comply with UEFA’s SCR regulations, the assumption has been that he could move on.
According to The Daily Mail’s Tom Collomosse though, Villa and Digne are said to have held positive talks over a new contract, and now the club are expected to make him an offer to extend his stay with us.
It’s certainly an interesting decision if accurate, as with Ian Maatsen pushing to become our first-choice option at left-back this season after a year of integrating and pushing to impress Unai Emery, having two top-class left-backs on big money on the books doesn’t seem to make a huge amount of sense given our financial position.
Further, we must still offload the likes of Alex Moreno and Samuel Iling-Junior given that it doesn’t look as though they have a part to play moving forward, and so it’s a slightly messy scenario currently as we get things in order.
Nevertheless, with Digne travelling with rest of the squad to the USA for our pre-season tour, it certainly looks as though he’ll remain with us in the more immediate future, and a new contract would certainly solidify his place in Emery’s plans moving forward.
As noted above, whether that makes sense from a financial perspective is up for debate unless he’s taking a significant pay-cut, as the sensible choice would arguably be to sell him while we can for a decent fee given he’s not getting any younger and this could be the last chance to make good money on him.
In contrast, he could continue to be an important presence on and off the pitch in our ongoing pursuit of success and silverware both domestically and in Europe, and having him and Maatsen continue to fight for a starting berth could be a great selection headache for Emery to continue to have this season.
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