Aston Villa are reportedly making progress in talks with Boubacar Kamara over a new contract extension to keep him at the club for the long-term future.
The 25-year-old has firmly established himself as a fundamental player for us since joining on a free transfer in 2022, as he’s gone on to make 94 appearances for the club across all competitions.
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As a pivotal figure in Unai Emery’s preferred starting line-up, the Frenchman’s presence is crucial to how we play, as his influence is key in both phases of the game with his defensive qualities and technical ability in possession, while his partnership with Youri Tielemans in our deeper midfield pivot has been one of our major strengths this year.
In turn, we certainly don’t want to lose him anytime soon, and although his current contract runs until June 2027, speculation has suggested that we’re pushing to agree on new terms to extend his stay at Villa and dismiss any possible notion of a departure in the near future.
According to The Athletic, a long-term contract has been offered to Kamara, and although we are likely to have to fend off competition to convince him to snub other offers, it’s noted that he wants to stay in the Premier League and talks are progressing between the two parties.
However, it remains to be seen if our ability to qualify for the Champions League for a second consecutive season has a significant bearing on his desire to stay or not, as with just three games remaining in the current Premier League campaign, we face a battle and have ground to make up on our rivals to secure a top-five finish in the standings.
The outcome of that scrap is arguably set to influence many things for us this summer, whether it’s the calibre of player we’re able to attract and add to Emery’s squad to make us more competitive, or which players we’re able to keep amid financial pressure and growing interest from elsewhere.
Kamara undoubtedly falls into the latter bracket as he’s a player we want to continue to build around rather than have to replace, and so while we’re hopeful of achieving our objective on the pitch in the coming weeks, it’s hoped we get a huge boost off it too through a deal being agreed to secure his long-term future at the club.