Aston Villa look set to complete the imminent signing of Atletico Madrid defender Matteo Ruggeri, as he has been pictured travelling to Birmingham to seal his move.
Following the departure of Lucas Digne, Villa have a void to fill at left-back in order to add competition and depth alongside Ian Maatsen, and after much speculation, it appears as though Ruggeri is on the verge of sealing his switch to join us.
As per Fabrizio Romano, the Italian defender has travelled to Birmingham to complete the formalities of his transfer, and so an announcement is expected shortly with the hope that he travels with his new teammates for our final pre-season friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach this weekend.
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Maatsen produced a fantastic display against Paris Saint-Germain in our UEFA Super Cup defeat in midweek, and so the added competition will hopefully continue to push him and time will tell if he is able to make that starting spot his own.
Meanwhile, Romano also reports that Villa are now looking to add a right-back to continue to bolster our squad, as reliable cover and competition for Matty Cash has long been a problem.
It had been hoped that either Kosta Nedeljkovic or Triston Rowe would do enough in pre-season to secure that role and in turn save us from spending part of our budget on another option, but it doesn’t appear as though either have convinced Unai Emery to stick with what he has already got.
Romano notes that Villa’s recently reported interest in West Ham United right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka is ‘genuine and concrete’, and so it remains to be seen if an agreement can be reached with the Hammers to green light an exit for the DR Congo international.
Wan-Bissaka, 28, has impressed across spells with Crystal Palace, Manchester United and West Ham and there is certainly a lot of experience to be added there, but depending on the transfer fee involved, many would arguably feel as though there are better options on the market, particularly if we continue to look at reducing the wage bill and average age of the squad and bring in an understudy for Cash.
That said, we’ve seemingly tried that with Nedeljkovic and Andres Garcia most recently, and so perhaps a more trusted and reliable option will be sought this summer.