Aston Villa have reportedly decided to keep Clement Lenglet at the club until the end of the season to see out his loan stint.
The 28-year-old joined us on a season-long loan deal from Barcelona in the summer, but he has found playing time hard to come by with his first five appearances all coming in the Europa Conference League.
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However, following an injury suffered by Pau Torres earlier this month, the Frenchman has started our last two Premier League outings, and has proven to be an important option at Emery’s disposal this season, particularly after the long-term injury sustained by Tyrone Mings.
Speculation had been building that his loan stint might be cut short given his lack of involvement, but according to Marca’s Diego Pico, Emery has made the final decision over Lenglet’s future and he will stay with us for the remainder of the campaign.
It’s added that the Villa boss considers his centre-half to be an important player for us this year, and so a touted move to AC Milan next month is now seemingly unlikely to materialise as Lenglet stays with us.
Ultimately, it’s the sensible decision from a Villa perspective, particularly given Lenglet has done a positive job when filling in for Torres in our backline.
We need the cover that he provides in that left-sided position in the centre-half pairing, and coupled with his technical ability and composure, he’s integral to how we want to play too.
Further, it avoids an unwanted situation in January of having to find a suitable replacement for him for arguably a six-month period which could be a complicated search, with the hope that Mings will be working towards a return next season.
Time will tell if this is indeed the outcome for Lenglet’s future as things can change between now and the end of the upcoming transfer window, but he’ll hope to be more involved in the coming months, albeit there is hope that Torres will return to face Burnley this weekend.
