Aston Villa and Marco Asensio could reportedly still look to make his loan switch from Paris Saint-Germain a permanent one in the summer.
The 29-year-old joined us on loan for the remainder of the season in the January transfer window, and he wasted little time in making a positive first impression.
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Asensio made his Villa debut in our 2-1 win over Tottenham in the FA Cup this past weekend, and the Spaniard’s class was prominent immediately as he added a creative spark to our play in the final third in just over 20 minutes on the pitch.
While it’s still early days and he faces a battle to establish himself in the Villa starting line-up given our competition for places, the early indications were promising that he’ll be able to have a positive influence on how our season turns out.
According to Fabrizio Romano, there is no option to buy included in the loan agreement between Villa and PSG, and so that arguably makes negotiations for a permanent move in the summer more complicated.
However, he adds that all concerned parties are open to the idea still, and so it remains to be seen whether or not Unai Emery wishes to sign him outright depending on how big of an impact he’s able to make between now and May.
Having been added to our squad for the knockout phase of the Champions League, it’s felt that Asensio’s presence and quality could perhaps make a bigger difference in Europe given his pedigree and experience of winning the competition with Real Madrid, and so time will tell if he ultimately makes it a no-brainer of a discussion for Villa.
The club will perhaps need to be mindful of the fact that we’ve got Philippe Coutinho and Emiliano Buendia currently out on loan among other players, and so it could possibly depend on our ability to offload those players too in order to make space and create the funds required to sign Asensio.
Nevertheless, it’s in everyone’s best interests in the more immediate future for his loan spell to prove to be a success, and hopefully we’ll be in a position to make it permanent if that’s the route that Emery and the management team want to go with Asensio in the summer.
