Emery: Malen Deal Awaiting Philogene Completion
Tuesday, 14th Jan 2025 14:30

Aston Villa boss Unai Emery says the deal which will see his club sign Borussia Dortmund forward Donyell Malen won’t be completed until Jaden Philogene’s move to the Blues is finalised.

Villa are understood to be paying the Bundesliga club £20 million for 22-year-old Dutch international Malen.

Town and the Villans agreed a £20 million-plus-add-ons fee for long-time Blues target Philogene last Wednesday with the 22-year-old agreeing a four-and-a-half-year deal and passing a medical the following day.

However, the move is still to be confirmed with some details relating to the switch remaining unsettled, but is still expected to go through.

“We are playing Everton tomorrow that’s the most important,” Emery said when quizzed on the situation with Malen at his pre-match press conference.

“But, of course, we are win the transfer window and we are trying to do some movement and we have the possibility to sign Malen. It’s close. We have to try to leave one player and that’s Jaden.”

Asked whether his club would be doing any further business, Emery continued: “We are alert. We want always to be ready to improve our squad with the players. Of course, some players want to leave us for different circumstances as well.

“We are moving forward like I am telling you. From today until last day, of course, if we gave change in one player like Jaden and Malen it’s the first, then maybe two or three players more.”

Philogene has long been a Town target with links first surfacing in the summer of 2023 before the England U21 international moved from Aston Villa to Hull City.

In July last year, the Blues had agreed a joint-deal with the Tigers for the forward and teammate Jacob Greaves with the Philogene side of the proposed move understood to be worth £18 million and the player having 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 Philogene made only three starts - two in the Premier League - and 11 sub appearances for Villa in the first half of the season and speculation regarding a swift exit began to surface before the January window opened before Town made their move.

Photo: IMAGO/Pro Sports Images via Reuters Connect

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Monkey_Blue added 15:59 - Jan 14 No one commenting knows the exact issues and whether it’s us, Villa or the agent or the player so throwing tantrums is ridiculous. It’s been 5 days which by no means qualifies as a saga when it comes to transfers. Hate being thrown at Philogene is disgraceful and symptomatic of the online culture & idiots that populate digital platforms these days. Grow up.
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Monkey_Blue added 15:59 - Jan 14 No one commenting knows the exact issues and whether it’s us, Villa or the agent or the player so throwing tantrums is ridiculous. It’s been 5 days which by no means qualifies as a saga when it comes to transfers. Hate being thrown at Philogene is disgraceful and symptomatic of the online culture & idiots that populate digital platforms these days. Grow up.
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Monkey_Blue added 15:59 - Jan 14 No one commenting knows the exact issues and whether it’s us, Villa or the agent or the player so throwing tantrums is ridiculous. It’s been 5 days which by no means qualifies as a saga when it comes to transfers. Hate being thrown at Philogene is disgraceful and symptomatic of the online culture & idiots that populate digital platforms these days. Grow up.
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EatonBlue added 16:00 - Jan 14 Oh, I get how it works now. We give Emery a cheque for £20m which he takes to the bank and asks them to change it to euros and off he goes to Dortmund with the cash in a carrier bag. It does not even need to go through the books.
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Bazza8564 added 16:08 - Jan 14

Well EatonBlue I think you are "marginally oversimplifying it", but actually thats exactly what is happening. They sell a player (who I think qualifies as having come through their books) to pay for another player and therefore comply with PSR. If Malen fails his medical, the deal is off. It's exactly the same deal we had with Broga in and Al Hamadi out in August (apart from the PSR bit) you don't let the player leave until his replacement is ready
To be fair if Fabrizio had just kept his gob shut a week ago we would be none the wiser. The club have said nothing, clearly because they absolutely understood and agreed the sequence of events last week.
So for all the comments about agents pi55ing about and the boy messing us about. it's nothing of the sort.
No wonder Mark Ashton doesnt like people talking about transfers until we announce them.
Perhaps Philogene shot JFK!!!!

blues1 added 16:15 - Jan 14 Itfc2024. Try reading the story. Philogene has agreed terms. So thr draly nothing to do with him " messing us about" as u put it. My guess actually, is that villa wouldn't release him until they were sure they were gonna get Malen. Now they are, they're now waiting for us to confirm the deal before they sign him.
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itfc2024 added 16:26 - Jan 14 blues1 this has gone on long enough agreed a fee last Wednesday it's now Tuesday and ww are still waiting like the 1st time agreed a fee and lost out cos it took so long
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rodthergasman added 16:28 - Jan 14 Town need to say to Villa he comes tomorrow, or we move on to someone else, and move on.
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tractorboybig added 16:31 - Jan 14 so villa are getting the real deal both ways
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itfc2024 added 17:10 - Jan 14 rodthergasman I totally agree give them a deadline 5pm tomorrow or we pull the plug think Broadhead and Clarke are better than him anyway
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Leejames99 added 17:12 - Jan 14

Happy Tuesday.
Philogene did not muck us around, Villa played a blinder, they had a matching clause, used it, now selling him for 20 Mill instead of 6 its good business. I really believe both clubs and the player knew this was going to be the case. Perhaps actually Villa blindsided the player as did the agent and he maybe thought he could go back to his home club and play but competition at Villa is huge.

Broja was not really the reason we were too late, thank god he never, he did medical and failed it so we said no thanks quite rightly and then Everton, Chelsea, Leicester and Newcastle all did deals to help each other. Everyone wants a striker I'd like to see James Macatee come in from City, knows our squad well.
Or go in for Almiron from Newcastle.
Love to see Matic arrive imagine Matic, Phillips and Cajuste in middle be solid.

Time will tell, I feel sorry for Philogene he would imagine just want to get on training pitch now and put Villa behind him.
Mckenna was hoping to get deals done quick but hadn't quite happened aside Godfery.
We will know soon enough.
I have one concern, obviously Philogene and Delap were together at Hull and hardly lit the division up despite both scoring a few individually and both fab players but I guess it's down to Mckenna to make are forward line prolific, I think he will be brill addition and he and Jack Clarke rotating on left with Davis, we won't give defenders peace.

Time will tell.
COYB

Leejames99 added 17:12 - Jan 14

Leejames99 added 17:17 - Jan 14 Villa have signed Malen so if Emry was right then welcome Philogene anytime now
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scottish_williee21 added 17:18 - Jan 14 Malen just signed …
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armchaircritic59 added 17:31 - Jan 14 Well Villa are getting a very useful young player, having seen him play about 5/6 times, and now hopefully, so are we!
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