Aston Villa defender Lucas Digne has suggested that the club want him to stay amid ongoing doubts over his future given he’s in the final 12 months of his current contract.
The 31-year-old joined Villa from Everton in January 2022, and he has since gone on to make 138 appearances for the club having established himself as our first-choice left-back.
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After showing solidity and consistency last season, the French international was a key figure in Unai Emery’s side, but towards the end of the campaign, Ian Maatsen began to displace him in the starting XI to suggest that he was building momentum in his bid to replace Digne on a more permanent basis and become our starting left-back next season.
Particularly with Digne’s contract situation as he’s widely reported to be one of our top earners, coupled with Villa’s PSR and SCR issues that need to be addressed this month, selling the Frenchman had seemed like a smart decision to help balance the books and fund our own spending this summer.
While that may still happen with so much uncertainty surrounding how the squad will look in the coming weeks, Digne has spoken about his future and suggested that although he’s open to staying or leaving given things are still up in the air at this point, the indication that he has received from the Villa hierarchy is that they want him to stay.
“I have one year left on my contract,” he told Le Journal du Dimanche. “I feel very good at Villa but you know that in football anything can happen. I’m open to anything. When there is only one year left on the contract, everyone plays their game.
“In England, there is no obsession with the extension as in France. The clubs are more serene financially even if Aston Villa may be penalised by FFP & have to sell players before June 30. The leaders want me to stay, that’s clear and it’s important to me.”
As we continue to approach the June 30 deadline, we’ll see if Digne remains at the club or not, but on one hand it would certainly be helpful for Emery to continue to have two top-class options to compete for a starting berth as we’ll be competing across multiple fronts once again next season.
Provided we’re comfortable with losing other individuals instead then if they are able to address our financial issues, time will tell if Digne isn’t one of the players to be sacrificed, but for the reasons mentioned above in terms of his wages, age, role in the side and current contract status, it would surely be questionable to keep him on and have to lose one of our more influential figures.
Furthermore, if he is to stay, Villa would possibly be well advised to offer him new terms to extend his contract, as losing him for nothing next summer as things stand wouldn’t be smart business, and perhaps we’ll see if he’s willing to take a pay-cut in order to compromise on a renewal agreement that ultimately suits all parties.
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