Aston Villa left-back Lucas Digne is reportedly edging towards leaving the club with talks said to be advancing with OGC Nice.
The 30-year-old arrived at Villa from Everton in January 2022, and has since gone on to make 49 appearances for the club, scoring two goals and providing four assists to go with his defensive duties.
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While he is a key figure for Unai Emery currently given Alex Moreno is still out injured, and having impressed in our win over his former club on Sunday, it didn’t seem as though an imminent exit was on the cards.
However, according to RMC Sport’s Fabrice Hawkins, Digne is now close to reaching an agreement with Nice, while Fabrizio Romano has since added that talks are advancing between the clubs and the player, and it could result in an initial loan move with an option to buy included in the agreement.
With Moreno closing in on a return in the coming weeks coupled with speculation that Villa are pursuing left-back targets that could replace Digne, it seems as though the Frenchman could well be moving on this month.
On one hand, it makes sense to try and shift him given he is believed to be one of the highest earners at the club, and as a back-up to Moreno, that is something the club could look to address and make a sensible financial decision.
That said, he does bring experience and quality competition to the position, and as we try to compete on multiple fronts this season, Emery will undoubtedly value that as the campaign progresses.
As noted above, if Villa have identified a replacement already and are confident in being able to secure a deal to sign them, then the decision to let Digne go makes a lot more sense.
It also allows Emery to continue to mould the squad into his own, and so any new signing would certainly represent a better fit for his system and preferred style of play compared to Digne, and so we’ll see how the situation plays out.
For now though, based on the reports above, it does sound as though the French international’s time at Villa could be coming to an end, but the hope is that if it is indeed an initial loan move, we aren’t covering his wages for the rest of the season and ideally, Villa would sell on a permanent basis now to recoup a fee and reinvest that.
