Aston Villa agree £25m fee for reported Chelsea, Newcastle target Digne

Aston Villa have agreed a £25m fee with Everton for Lucas Digne and they have reportedly beaten the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle to the signing.

Everton paid an initial fee of £18m to sign Digne from Barcelona in 2018. He was a standout performer for the Toffees up until the start of this season.

It was reported last month that the left-back has a “fractious” relationship with Rafael Benitez. He has not featured for Everton since their 4-1 loss to Liverpool on December 1.

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Digne has been linked with several Premier League clubs in recent weeks. Sky Sports have now revealed that Aston Villa have agreed a fee with Everton to sign Digne for £25m.

The report adds that Villa have “beaten off interest from Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham”. It is also stated that personal terms will be “agreed fairly swiftly”. The player will undergo his medical on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Coutinho’s agent (Kia Joorabchian) has revealed that his player’s move to Aston Villa “was done and dusted” once he spoke with Gerrard:

“Once Steven and Phillippe had spoken with each other, that was done and dusted,” Joorabchian said.

“Because obviously they know each other quite well for many years and they’re good friends. When they spoke about the way that Aston Villa has grown over the last few years and where Steven wants to take them and what Phillip is going to do provide. I think that was the end of that, it was quite fast to be honest.”

Joorabchian went onto suggest that a permanent return to the Premier League for Coutinho is “very realistic”:

“I think so. The last couple of years we’ve been quite realistic in how we’ve done things and I think Phil is another very good example of the reason to come here is to take that step and hopefully get a permanent move in the Premier League, so I think it’s very realistic.

“They [Aston Villa] picked up a proportion of the wages, but I think what is more important is that Phil has given up a proportion of his wages, and the reason that he’s done that is that he wants to come back in the Premier League and he wants to play with Steven, and he wants to play at Villa.

“There were other clubs that offered the full wages but it was more about the football side of it.”