Aston Villa set to sign £50m Everton star - David Ornstein

Aston Villa are set to sign Amadou Onana in a transfer worth around £50million, according to David Ornstein.

The Athletic journalist reported via X on 13 July that the Toffees midfielder has personal terms in place on a long-term deal and is keen to play for Unai Emery at Villa Park.

His move is in the process of being finalised, with Ornstein reporting via The Athletic’s website that the 22-year-old had emerged as a key target for the Spanish manager.

Everton were hoping to land a fee of between £60m and £70m based on deals done for similar midfielders in recent years, and will owe former club Lille 20 per cent of the profit on his original £30m move to Goodison Park.

Everton star enthusiastic about playing for Unai Emery

Villa were reported to have made an approach at the same time as Paris Saint-Germain did last month [The Times, 14 June] but a deal being close to completion is a rapid acceleration.

Kevin Thelwell would have likely preferred to sell the Belgian international to a club outside the Premier League but if Onana’s preference is to join Emery then it may have made the difference.

If the fee is as much as £20m less than what the club had hoped for then that is clearly a blow, especially when the sell-on is owed to Lille.

But it was widely expected that he would be leaving this summer so securing a substantial fee at this stage of the window is still valid progress and should further guard against bids for Jarrad Branthwaite.

It also appears the Toffees are already moving to fill the gap Onana is set to leave behind with a loan move for Chelsea’s Lesley Ugochukwu potentially on the cards.

Foot Mercato reported earlier on 13 July that the 20-year-old is set to leave Stamford Bridge on a temporary move and prefers to stay in the Premier League where the Toffees are the only named side out of three said to be interested.

Given the finances involved in Onana’s sale and Ugochukwu’s potential loan that could be a very useful pair of deals this summer.

Business has already been done with Villa in the form of the parallel deals for Tim Iroegbunam and Lewis Dobbin with the former ultimately helping replace the exit-bound Goodison star.

In other Everton news, the Toffees have opened transfer negotiations over their new top target.

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