Aston Villa are reportedly set to see Lucas Digne depart this summer as he is set to join Paris Saint-Germain for a fee under €10m.
The 32-year-old has established himself as an important piece in Unai Emery’s squad over the past few years, as he has played a key role in our progress and success since joining in 2022.
However, this summer transfer window is now starting to build momentum for Villa with speculation rife over incomings and outgoings, and now Digne could be the latest to move on.
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According to Fabrizio Romano, a verbal agreement has now been reached between the Frenchman and PSG as he looks set to join the Ligue 1 champions and current Champions League winners, who are set to trigger and subsequently pay a release clause in his contract, said to be worth under €10m.
On one hand, it’s a disappointing blow as Digne has been a consistent and reliable player for us and has fended off competition at left-back to show his quality and resilience.
However, with Villa needing to offload players this summer in order to balance our books, fund our own spending on a rebuild and reduce our wage bill aimed at trying to stay competitive while adhering to financial regulations, selling Digne makes sense.
He turns 33 next week and so this fee seems decent at this stage of his career, and although it was widely reported that he took a pay cut to remain last summer, he is still likely at the higher end of our earners, and so shedding his salary should hopefully make a significant difference.
Time will tell who comes in to replace him as Emery will want to fill that void and have competition for Ian Maatsen, but with Youri Tielemans set to depart as well to join Manchester United, Villa’s rebuild could really pick up pace in the coming weeks as we look to assemble a squad capable of not only building on last season’s success, but continuing to enjoy lasting progress to establish ourselves at the top level both domestically and in Europe.
For Maatsen though, regardless of who comes in to replace Digne, he now has a huge opportunity over pre-season to nail that starting role down as his own and step up to become the long-term solution in that position.