Real Betis have reportedly held talks with Aston Villa defender Alex Moreno over a potential return to the club this summer.
The 32-year-old arrived at Villa in January 2023 as the first signing of the Unai Emery era, and with injuries providing him with an early opportunity to showcase his quality, he took that chance with both hands and made an important impact in his first season with us.
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However, his own injury troubles eventually saw him fall down the pecking order as Villa moved in a different direction with Lucas Digne and the signing of Ian Maatsen last summer, and so Moreno was loaned out to Nottingham Forest this past season where he made 19 appearances for the club.
With that loan stint set to officially end this month, it remains to be seen what the next step is for the Spaniard as it arguably won’t come in a Villa shirt, and El Desmarque report that Betis are looking to strengthen their options at left-back this summer, and Moreno is one of the options that they’ve held talks over.
It’s added that Junior Firpo and Javi Galan are also being considered so there’s no guarantee that Moreno will get his return to his former club, but he is being considered and it would likely be an ideal solution for all concerned if a permanent switch did materialise.
As noted above, Villa have got two quality options competing for the starting role at left-back, albeit the expectation is that Lucas Digne could be a player that is available on the transfer market this summer, as with 12 months remaining on his contract with us, we could try to get a decent fee and shift his salary off the wage bill to help with our PSR and SCR issues.
That could open the door for Moreno to come back in and provide depth behind Maatsen, but it sounds more likely that he’ll be moving on as Villa have other options in that department to fill in if required, and so time will tell if it’s a return to Spain or an alternative option presents itself.
Villa have a lot of business to do this summer to address our financial predicament but also to strengthen Emery’s squad where possible ahead of next season, and selling Moreno will hopefully contribute to giving us additional flexibility to get the deals we want done, done before and after June 30.
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