Aston Villa are set to complete the signing of Moussa Diaby after agreeing a deal with Bayer Leverkusen, while there are varying reports on the transfer fee involved.
The 24-year-old has impressed during his stint in Germany since 2019, scoring 49 goals and providing 48 assists in 172 appearances for the Bundesliga outfit.
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However, he now looks set to begin a new chapter in his career, with The Athletic’s David Ornstein reporting that we’ve agreed a deal with Leverkusen to sign him, said to be worth €40m [£34.6m] plus add-ons.
Further, he adds that we’ve also agreed personal terms and so all looks to be on course for the move to go through, with the formalities of the transfer likely to be carried out in the coming days.
While the fee touted by the Athletic perhaps gives us a clearer idea on what the guaranteed figure is, Fabrizio Romano has reported that the move will cost us in excess of €50m in total, and so time will tell how many of those bonuses are eventually paid to Leverkusen.
Nevertheless, the important thing is that it appears as though Diaby is now Villa bound having chosen us over the offer he received from Al-Nassr, and we’ll look forward to welcoming him to the club in due course as he adds an important and exciting new dynamic to our attack.
As per RMC Sport’s Fabrice Hawkins, he will sign a five-year contract with a medical scheduled in the next few days, but it remains to be seen just how accurate all these leaked details prove to be.
With his pace, directness, movement off the ball and quality in front of goal, he could be ideal addition to make us more potent alongside the likes of Emiliano Buendia and Ollie Watkins, with their characteristics potentially gelling really well together.
That said, Emery also has a lot of options around them with Cameron Archer, Philippe Coutinho and Leon Bailey still pushing for bigger roles next season.
Time will tell how the squad shapes up ahead of the new campaign, but should Diaby arrive now as expected, it’s another quality signing that significantly improves us, and adds another top signing to our summer’s work following the additions of Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres.
Further, should that fee of £34.6m prove to be accurate, that’s excellent business for such a big talent like Diaby, and that perhaps points to the influence and impact of Monchi following his arrival as President of Football Operations earlier this month.