Aston Villa midfielder Morgan Sanson is reportedly set to join Strasbourg on loan for the rest of the season, but it’s suggested that there is no option to buy included in the agreement.
The 28-year-old joined us from Marseille in January 2021, but through a combination of injury setbacks and competition for places, he has been limited to just 23 appearances for Villa across all competitions.
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After recently scoring his first goal for the club in our FA Cup clash with Stevenage earlier this month, and having seemingly started to work his way into Unai Emery’s plans, it had been hoped that Sanson may finally be building some momentum to prove his worth in a Villa shirt.
However, after Emery himself publicly noted that the Frenchman could leave this month in his press conference last week, that doesn’t appear to be the case, as according to L’Equipe, he is set to join Strasbourg on loan for the rest of the season, with the move touted to be officially announced on Monday.
Interestingly though, the report adds that there is no option to buy included in the loan agreement, and so Sanson will merely be leaving until the summer and will then return to Villa.
A lot can happen between now and the summer though, as he may impress enough to either earn a permanent move to Strasbourg anyway, or his form could catch the eye of other interested parties who will move to sign him on a long-term deal ahead of next season.
It seems unlikely now though that if Emery is willing to allow him to leave on loan this month that Sanson has a future at Villa, and so returning to form part of the Spaniard’s plans beyond this season doesn’t seem like a realistic option at this stage.
Time will tell if firstly the loan move to Strasbourg is announced as reported on Monday, and then it remains to be seen how Sanson fares back in France and what that then means for his long-term future.
From a Villa perspective, that will be one less option for Emery in midfield in the next few months, and so it will be interesting to see if we can sign a reinforcement that he wants in the next week or if he is content to stick with what we have for now and free up space for a major summer transfer window.
Having stressed on several occasions that he is only willing to sign players who significantly improve the squad and raise the level of the group, it certainly seems as though we’ll go for quality over quantity moving forward.
