Aston Villa have reportedly reached an agreement with Atletico Madrid over the signing of defender Matteo Ruggeri in a deal worth an initial €25m.
The 24-year-old came through the youth ranks at Atalanta before making the move to Spain last summer, and so he has now gained valuable experience playing at the top level across both Serie A and La Liga.
It looks as though the next chapter in his career will bring him to England, as Villa are said to be closing in on a deal to sign the left-back to fill the void left behind by Lucas Digne’s departure earlier this week.
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According to Fabrizio Romano, Villa have now reached a verbal agreement with Atleti to sign Ruggeri in a deal worth an initial €25m plus €1.5m in add-ons, while he also claims that the Italian defender has now agreed on personal terms too.
The expectation is that he will travel to undergo his medical and complete the formalities of his move this week, but we are still waiting for official confirmation of his transfer at this stage.
It was always going to be crucial for Villa to move quickly to bring in a replacement for Digne, as Unai Emery will want competition for places and depth in each position, and in this case to keep pushing Ian Maatsen in that battle for a starting berth.
Ruggeri offers a different profile in that position as he’s more aggressive with his defensive work, but he can also get forward and provide an attacking dynamic down the left side, and so it will be interesting to see how he settles and adapts to Emery’s demands.
It’s another example of Villa’s strategy to bring down the average age of the squad too as he’s significantly younger than Digne, and so hopefully that gives us a long-term solution in that role as well as continuing to help bring down our wage bill as we balance building a competitive squad and managing our finances to adhere to the relevant financial regulations.
Villa’s final pre-season game of the summer is this weekend against Borussia Monchengladbach and so we’ll wait to see if the deal is completed before then, but should Ruggeri seal his move to Villa in the coming days, he’ll no doubt be part of the squad that prepares for our Premier League season opener against Brighton on August 23.