Aston Villa agree £21m transfer as medical booked with Premier League club

Aston Villa winger Jaden Philogene is poised to join Ipswich Town for a reported fee of £21m plus add-ons.

The winger re-signed for Villa last summer from Hull City instead of joining Ipswich after the newly-promoted side had an £18m bid accepted. Villa took up their option to match the offer and Philogene opted to return to Unai Emery’s squad instead.

Due to their 30 per cent sell-on clause, Villa essentially paid £13m for Philogene, making a decent profit on the 22-year-old in the space of months. He only made two Premier League starts for Villa this season, while he didn’t feature in the last five matches.

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Philogene impressed against Bayern Munich in the Champions League playing from the right, but he rarely operated in his favoured role off the left. Last week, Emery admitted that a loan move was one option for Philogene, since he believes in his potential. Now it appears that his future will be away from Villa Park after all.

"He has a potential and he didn’t show his potential in the first six months being with us," Emery said of Philogene last week. "He played some important matches, against Bayern Munich and Manchester United. At that moment he was more or less given the opportunity to show his progress. He didn’t do it clearly and was playing less, but I believe in his potential.

"It (a loan) is one option for him and the club because there are lots of clubs interested in him. They believe in his potential. We are not close [to agreeing a loan] and as a coach I am not really wanting to let him leave, but we are speaking about the different options. Maybe it could be an option [loan].

"My conversation was always to be patient, take time to improve things. The adaptation is going slower than we wanted, but still in my mind the objective is to improve and help us here. Now it is January, it could be an option for him and the squad to let him leave."

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