Aston Villa chief Unai Emery opens up on Hull City’s Jaden Philogene deal
The Tigers are flexing their muscles in the final week of the summer transfer window
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery says Hull City’s bid to sign Jaden Philogene was too good to rebuff, as the 21-year-old winger prepares to finalise his move to the MKM Stadium.
Philogene will sign a long-term contract with the ambitious Championship club after City agreed a fee understood to be in the region of £5m with the Premier League outfit.
Personal terms and a medical took place earlier in the week and the youngster was at the club on Friday ahead of the evening draw with Bristol City, and it’s expected he’ll be at training early next week to prepare for Saturday’s trip to promotion favourites Leicester City.
The youngster was a regular feature for Villa during their pre-season campaign and played in all three games during their tour of the USA, scoring once and notching an assist, before coming off the bench in the Premier League opening day defeat to Newcastle United.
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He hasn’t been involved in either of their league or European games since, as he finalises his move to City, with Villa requesting a time-sensitive buy-back clause plus a sell-on clause to be inserted into the dea
“Jaden started training with us last year at the end of the season, he started in the pre-season, and we were analysing him,” the Spaniard told Birmingham Live.
“I was very happy with him and we decided to let him to leave because we have an offer, a very good offer for him and because we are thinking to play regularly here is going to be more difficult than going again in another club.
“Of course, we are going to follow him and we are going to be aware as well of how he’s developing, but we are very demanding in our squad, in our decision to keep players here. We want to be competitive in every competition we are going to face.”
Meanwhile, City expect to learn on Sunday if Keinan Davis has agreed to sign for the Tigers or accept one of the offers he has elsewhere in the Championship.
Davis is free to leave Villa having been training with the club’s Under-21s in recent weeks, and has been made a lucrative offer by City to join Philogene at the MKM Stadium, but is currently assessing his options.
