Aston Villa club officials are reportedly travelling to Belgium this week to hold negotiations over the signing of Club Brugge defender Joel Ordonez.
Villa have a major void to fill in the heart of our defence this summer following the departure of Ezri Konsa, and speculation has paired us with a move for multiple targets since.
While Unai Emery will rely on Victor Lindelof to partner Pau Torres in the more immediate future, albeit he’ll be hoping for a much-improved display after our 4-0 defeat to Brighton this past weekend, a long-term solution and competition is certainly needed in that department.
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According to Sacha Tavolieri, Villa officials are travelling to Belgium in order to hold talks with Club Brugge over Ordonez, and it’s suggested that those talks will be centred around an initial loan move with an obligation to buy worth around €30m.
However, it’s added that it’s unclear at this stage what will trigger that obligation to buy clause, and so it’s hoped that an agreement can be reached this week and we are able to bolster our defensive options with an exciting young talent.
The 22-year-old joined Club Brugge in 2023 and has since gone on to make 128 appearances for the club, while he has also earned 20 caps for Ecuador.
A commanding centre-half with composure in possession, it’s easy to see why Villa and Emery would be keen to prise him away and get a deal done to sign him this summer as he suits our way of playing and will hopefully be able to shore things up in defence, and it’s hoped that he can indeed be the long-term successor to Konsa in our backline.
Based on the report above, there is still work to be done in order to get this deal over the line, but after other targets have been linked and with no agreement being reached to sign them, namely Southampton’s Taylor Harwood-Bellis, it appears as though Villa’s focus is now closing in on Ordonez and we’ll hope for positive news in the coming days ahead of the transfer window deadline.