Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has confirmed that winger Jaden Philogene could leave his club this month with the Blues eyeing a loan move for their summer target.
In July, the Blues had agreed a joint-deal with Hull City for forward Philogene and teammate Jacob Greaves with the Philogene side of the proposed move understood to be worth £18 million and the player understood to have agreed personal terms at Portman Road.
However, his former club Villa had 72 hours within which to exercise matching rights as part of the deal they had agreed with the Tigers the previous summer, which they did and Philogene returned to Villa Park for £13 million - the Midlanders also taking advantage of their 30 per cent sell-on - with the forward signing a five-year contract.
But since then the England U21 international has made only three starts - two in the Premier League - and 11 sub appearances and Emery says a loan move is under consideration.
"He has a potential and he didn’t show his potential in the first six months being with us, but for different circumstances,” he said. "He played some important matches against Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
"At that moment, he was more or less with the opportunity to show his progress. He didn’t do it clearly and for circumstances he was playing less, but I believe in his potential.
"It is one option for him and the club [a loan] 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].
"Tomorrow he is injured and is not available. 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.”
Blues boss Kieran McKenna was quizzed about his interest in Philogene at his press conference but was staying tight-lipped.
"My focus is on the players that we have here,” he said. "We're still working really hard with the group that we have, the players that we've had here for a long time, and the players who joined us in the summer, and that's where my focus is.
"Of course, we're trying to add to the squad in this window, as every team is, and we want to make the squad better, not just for the second half of the season but for the long term. So we're going to look to do that in the best way possible.”