Aston Villa have confirmed that an agreement has been reached with Chelsea over the permanent transfer of Carney Chukwuemeka this summer.
The 18-year-old was left out of the squad that travelled for our pre-season tour of Australia last month, with speculation rife over his future at the club given his current contract only runs until next summer.
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However, it doesn’t appear as though he’ll see out those final 12 months, as Villa have confirmed on the club’s official site that an agreement has been reached with Chelsea for the permanent transfer of Chukwuemeka, who has now travelled to London to agree on personal terms and undergo a medical ahead of his switch to Stamford Bridge.
Villa boss Steven Gerrard has publicly revealed on more than one occasion that a contract offer has been on the table for Chukwuemeka for some time, but ultimately he has opted against signing on new terms and committing his future to the club, and instead will continue his career elsewhere.
There is no doubt a feeling of disappointment over his exit, as given he’s a top prospect with a potentially big future ahead of him, losing a talent like that is always a shame, particularly given how impressive he was at youth level for us.
That said, Villa have effectively done all that they can in this situation. Chukwuemeka was given opportunities to impress at senior level under Gerrard last season, he has a clear pathway and faith from the club to go on and become a key player for us and the contract offer would likely have been a lucrative one.
Despite all that, he has opted to take his career down a different route, and so while we couldn’t guaranteed him much more having been relatively underwhelming for the first-team thus far, it’s a real boost that we’ve managed to offload him now for a decent fee this summer and not lost him for next to nothing when his contract expires next year.
As per BBC Sport’s Phil McNulty, Villa are expected to receive £20m in total for Chukwuemeka, and so particularly with that in mind, that is excellent business from the club in relation to a player who ultimately has only made two Premier League starts and wanted to move on.