Aston Villa transfers: Belief grows £50m signing is ON after contact with Everton

Aston Villa have made contact with Everton about the signing of Amadou Onana and the Toffees’ stance suggests the midfielder could be on the move this summer, TEAMtalk can confirm.

Onana has just completed his second season in the Premier League and is currently on duty with Belgium at Euro 2024. His international involvement isn’t the only reason this could be a busy summer for him, though.

TEAMtalk learned back in February that all of the Premier League’s so-called big six held some form of interest in Onana. Among that group, the most serious suitors have seemed to be Arsenal, who were recently reported to have made contact with Everton – though TEAMtalk has not been able to confirm that development.

What we can confirm is that Aston Villa, a club who disrupted the traditional hierarchy in last season’s Premier League table, have muscled into the race for Onana.

TEAMtalk sources have verified that Villa have touched base with Everton to register their interest in the 22-year-old. However, Everton sources insist they have not received any official move.

Villa have Champions League football to look forward to next season after their highest top-flight finish in almost 30 years. However, as well as preparing to strengthen for their involvement in Europe’s top competition, they have also been bracing themselves for a battle against Profit and Sustainability rules.

The prospect of selling star midfielder Douglas Luiz has been looming over Villa. That said, they have started to cast out their net for a potential reinforcement.

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Everton transfers: Onana sale chosen over Branthwaite
Everton are another club trying to stave off Profit and Sustainability concerns. They may have to sell a top player themselves soon, and our understanding is they would prefer to cash in on Onana than highly-rated defender Jarrad Branthwaite.

As we reported this week, Everton believe Branthwaite is worth close to £70m, far higher than what has recently been offered by Manchester United.

In contrast, there is more scope for Everton to agree to Onana’s sale and Villa are now hoping to be the ones to benefit.

Unai Emery’s side, whose transfer operations are overseen by Monchi, are growing in confidence that they can sign Onana for a fee in the region of £50million.

It would give Everton a profit on the £33m they originally paid Lille, while for Villa it would come close to their record signing (which currently is Moussa Diaby for £51.9m from last summer).

The most recent player to move from Everton to Villa was defender Lucas Digne in January 2022. Two-and-a-half years later, the clubs are back in contact regarding Onana’s potential move.

It would come on the back of a season in which Onana played 37 times for Everton and scored three goals, following on from his 35 appearances and one goal in his debut campaign.

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