Aston Villa have confirmed that Bertrand Traore has left the club to join Villarreal, while both Tommi O’Reilly and Josh Feeney have departed on loan.
It was a busy deadline day for Villa, as after announcing the signing of Morgan Rogers earlier in the day, there was a flurry of activity that followed.
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Lino Sousa was signed from Arsenal while Joe Gauci arrives from Adelaide Utd, but there was a balance to our work with various exits over the course of the month too.
As confirmed by the club’s statement, Traore agreed to a mutual termination of his contract and has gone on to join Villarreal, ending his stint with us after arriving in September 2020.
While he produced some wonderful, memorable moments, whether it was his sublime finish at West Bromwich Albion or his crucial goals in the back-end of last season to help us secure European qualification, it does feel as though this is the right move for all concerned to move on and go their separate ways.
In turn, we wish ‘Bertie’ well in the future, and hope that it works out for him at Villarreal.
Meanwhile, the club also confirmed that both O’Reilly and Feeney have joined Real Union on loan until the end of the season, and it will hopefully prove to be an invaluable experience for the young duo.
It’s the first prominent utilisation of the growing V Sports network of clubs, and so while we hope to see the stint prove to be beneficial for the two youngsters in their development, time will tell if it’s the start of more moves like this where we send our youngsters abroad to our partner clubs where they’re likely to gain playing time at a higher level.
They join Leander Dendoncker and Filip Marschall in leaving this month, along with Kosta Nedeljkovic and Lino Sousa who were loaned out after signing for the club, and so it’s hoped that we’re not only continuing to strengthen on the pitch, but also putting ourselves in a better position off it from a financial perspective too by balancing our books where possible.