Aston Villa have reportedly reached an agreement over the exit of Donyell Malen, who is set to join Roma in an initial loan move.
The 26-year-old joined us from Borussia Dortmund a year ago today, and has gone on to make 46 appearances, scoring 10 goals and providing two assists.
While he has established himself as a key part of our squad in that time, he has largely had to play a depth role and was notably left out of our Champions League squad in the second half of last season.
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Nevertheless, the Dutch international showed great professionalism and commitment to continue to play an important role in our progress, and he has maintained that through this season, albeit still in a limited capacity despite having the quality and versatility to play in different roles.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Villa have a deal in place with Roma that will see Malen join the Italian giants on loan initially for £2m, while there will be a £25m obligation to buy clause included in the agreement for the end of the season.
In turn, that means that Malen has likely now played his last game for us, and will begin a new challenge and chapter of his career in the Italian capital.
For the reasons noted above, it certainly is a shame to see him move on, and it’s now crucial that Villa move to replace him this month to ensure that we give Emery an alternative option and solution in the attacking third, and perhaps an entirely different dynamic to help us compete across multiple fronts.
It could be argued that Malen never really fitted the role that the Villa boss wanted him to play and although it still worked to an extent, it possibly makes sense for both parties to part company, and hopefully this will provide a solution for both that works better.
Should the switch go through as expected, it will be fascinating to see who is brought in to fill that void, with former Villa striker Tammy Abraham being heavily linked with a return in recent weeks, to give us a different type of frontman to use and alternate with Ollie Watkins.
