Town have finally completed the deal to sign Aston Villa forward Jaden Philogene.

The Blues and Villans agreed a £20 million fee plus add-ons understood to be worth a further £3 million for long-time 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, minor details relating to the switch remained unresolved until today with the move eventually completed this evening.

“I’m excited to be here and I know there are great players in the squad,” Philogene told the club website.  

“I just want to play as much as possible. As a player I like to dribble and link up play and provide goals and assists. I’m looking forward to it.”

Speaking about Philogene earlier today, before the deal had been finalised, manager Kieran McKenna said: “I think what's really important in all this is that Jaden is really keen to come to the football club.

“I think it's been a slightly longer process than we would have wanted, but it's been steadfast within all that that Jaden believes in the project here. 

“He has shown a desire to come here, not just now but in the summer as well. It's pretty well known that we tried to bring Jaden to the football club in the summer and amongst having the options of quite a lot of well-established Premier League clubs, his expressed desire was to come here. 

“It was something that we tried to do in the end, but it wasn't possible with the contractual situation with Aston Villa, and he went back to his previous club. 

“He's shown a good desire to be here through the last couple of windows. He's a player that we know well, he's a player that we like and we'd like to bring to the football club.”

England U21 international Philogene has long been a Town target with links first surfacing in the summer of 2023 before the Hammersmith-born attacker 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 switch 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 with Town making an early move, while Everton, one of the summer’s other suitors, were also reported to have shown renewed interest.

Philogene is the Blues’ second signing of the January window following defender Ben Godfrey. The deal has been completed too late for his involvement against Brighton on Thursday but with manager McKenna not usually including players until they’ve trained with the squad for a few days anyway. A debut from the bench against Manchester City on Sunday seems likely.

Town are still looking for a number nine and another forward, an offer for Liverpool youngster Ben Doak, who is currently on loan at Middlesbrough having been rebuffed almost a fortnight ago.

Photo: ITFC/Matchday Images

blueboy1981 added 16:26 - Jan 16 blues1 - entitled to mine, as you are yours !
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Dissboyitfc added 17:52 - Jan 16 I thought we were paying too much for Delap who lets face hadnt set the world alight in the championship, how wrong was i, if Philiogene turns out to be anywhere near as good a signing as Delap then happy days!
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Dissboyitfc added 17:58 - Jan 16 Back in the dark lord days, players wouldnt sign for ipswich because of location ( according to Keane) now players cant wait to play for us, says so much about Keane and so much more about KM.
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