Unai Emery phonecall behind latest Aston Villa business as official announcement made
Aston Villa are hoping to conclude some final pieces of transfer business before the 2 February deadline.
It’s been a relatively quiet winter window at Villa Park, as Aston Villa continue to wrestle with UEFA financial constraints.
Seventeen-year-old striker Brian Madjo has signed from Metz, whilst teenage winger Alysson completed his move to Villa to make up Unai Emery’s only new additions so far this winter.
Further movement is expected, though, with Tammy Abraham looking set to join Aston Villa to bolster Emery’s forward options following the departure of Donyell Malen to Roma.
Unai Emery role in Leon Bailey recall revealed
Aston Villa have made one other surprise move to reinforce their attacking options this month, and that is the decision to recall Leon Bailey from his loan spell with Roma.
That news was made official by Villa via their official website on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old winger endured a down year at Villa Park in 2024-25, scoring just two goals and providing four assists in 38 total appearances.
Considering he’d scored 14 and registered 13 assists in 52 games for Villa in 2023-24, that was a significant regression in production.
His role in Emery’s plans reflected that in this season’s summer transfer window, as the Jamaica international was granted the opportunity to reignite his career in the Italian capital for the 2025-26 campaign.
However, after making just seven Serie A appearances for Roma, culminating in 182 minutes of league football and providing no goal contributions in the league, he’s been summoned back to the West Midlands.
Emery had previously made his and Villa’s stance clear on Bailey’s situation, and that was the he must stay with Roma, but Bailey has convinced them to have a change of heart.
As revealed in a report from La Gazzetta dello Sport‘s live transfer blog, Bailey made the decision to withdraw himself from Roma’s squad ahead of their game against Torino on Sunday.
That was done after he’d spoken with Emery over a phone call, in which he’s reported as informing the Villa boss that he felt Roma signing Malen and Robinio Vaz as showing him a “lack of respect”.
After hearing that, Villa are said to have granted Bailey’s wish to return to Villa Park, from which the winger then began to push Roma to let him leave.
However, it’s stated that because this was Bailey’s decision to terminate his loan contract and not that of Roma, the Italian side won’t pay the €2million/£1.7m loan fee agreed in the summer, as well as the next instalment of his salary.
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Villa could look to ship Bailey straight back out
Just because Bailey has returned to Villa Park this month doesn’t mean he’s back for good, as he will have to convince Emery that he can play a role in his team.
That’s going to be far easier said than done, and given Villa’s ongoing battle to stay in governing bodies’ financial good books, the opportunity to cash in on Bailey could be too good to turn down.
He’s only made a competitive appearance for Roma in 2025-26, meaning he could be sold to another club and have no issues playing for them straight away.
If he makes a competitive appearance for Villa this season, however, then he would not be able to play for a third club in one season, which would force Emery to keep him around until the summer at least.
Stay up to date this winter with our Aston Villa transfer tracker. Click to see every done deal at Villa Park, plus expert reaction from our team of writers.