A medical is all that remains, with Unai. emery on the cusp of completing an incredible Aston Villa coup on remarkably good value terms, per a top source.
Emery worked wonders at Villa Park
upon replacing Steven Gerrard, guiding Aston Villa to a superb seventh-placed finish.
Their reward is a return to European football, with Villa’s place booked in the play-off round of the Europa Emery.conference league
Villa will thus hope to match West Ham’s exploits in that very same competition last season. To do so, and to ensure the weightier fixture list doesn’t hamper their season overall, Villa’s summer window is expected to be a busy one.
One area Emery is seeking to address is centre-half. Spain international Pau Torres quickly emerged as Villa’s No 1 target in that regard and per the latest from Fabrizio Romano, the move is close to completion.
Indeed, the transfer guru tweeted Torres, 26, will sign a five-year contract, while the transfer fee paid will be far below the player’s release clause.
Villarreal hold a release clause in Torres’ current contract worth €60m. According to Romano, Villa will be on the hook for just €35m that could potentially rise to €40m through add-ons.
As such, Villa have secured a colossal discount, with the final fee if add-ons are achieved equating to £34.4m in pounds sterling.
Torres had repeatedly been linked with Man Utd over recent seasons, while he more recently emerged on Bayern Munich’s radar.
However, Bayern’s No 1 option at centre-half was Kim Min-jae who has agreed personal terms with the club. Bayern fully intend to trigger the release clause that activates on July 1 in a development that ensured Villa had a free run at Torres.
Tores has 23 caps to his name for Spain and will immediately be installed in Emery’s starting eleven.
The left-footer will be deployed on the left side of the centre-back pairing, with Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Diego Carlos due to compete for the other slot.
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