Unai Emery likely to sell Lucas Digne as Aston Villa close in on Archie Brown transfer
Aston Villa are more likely to sell Lucas Digne than they are Alex Moreno this summer if they sign a new left-back, according to Alan Hutton.
Unai Emery is keen to add to his squad in the summer transfer window as the Villans prepare for their Champions League campaign and one player linked with a move to Villa Park is Gent left-back Archie Brown [The Mirror, 28 May].
Throughout the last season, the Villa boss tended to regularly rest and rotate his defensive players, with Digne starting 27 Premier League games and Moreno 11 as the Spanish defender struggled with injury.
Although Hutton admits he thinks that Emery’s side looks better when the Frenchman starts, he expects the 30-year-old to be the player to make with when the window opens should the Villans act on their interest in Brown.
“There would have to be one out to get on in,” Hutton exclusively told Villa News.
“It will be really interesting because Emery knows Moreno really well, he brought him in. They’re similar in terms of the way they get forward so it is very much of a muchness.
“I just feel there has been a lot of speculation around about Digne that he would be leaving. That being said, towards the end of the season, through injury and different things, the fullbacks would get switched.
“One week it would be Moreno, the next it would be Digne and then on the other side, it would be Ezri Konsa and then Cash so he obviously likes to rotate for whatever reason, he must see different abilities with them.
“I just feel that if anyone was to go it would be Digne, even though I like him slightly more personally. Just with the rumours around him, you just think maybe something is going on.”
Will Aston Villa sell Lucas Digne this summer transfer window?
Villa are going to need plenty of options at their disposal ahead of the start of next season and while that will mean that they’re reluctant to sell players, they also have to ensure that they remain within financial fair play regulations.
Emery doesn’t need three first-team left-backs. Therefore, it is only natural that somebody will depart if Brown arrives this summer, even if in an ideal world the Villans would keep both Digne and Moreno and slowly bed the Gent star into the starting XI.
It won’t be an easy decision to make for those in charge of recruitment at Villa Park this summer as both players have their pros and cons, but it seems more likely than not one of the defensive pair will make way before next season gets underway.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery has been told the asking price for Crysencio Summerville after a new Leeds United development
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