Phil your boots
Aston Villa to sign second former star in two days with transfer to cost almost £5m LESS than Premier League rival bid
£12.6m winger is not the only former star Villa have brought back
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ASTON VILLA are set to re-sign Jaden Philogene from Hull for £12.6million — ten months after his £5m sale.
The winger is understood to be jetting in from the Tigers’ Turkish training camp to rejoin Villa, after snubbing Ipswich, Everton and Crystal Palace.
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Villa triggered their "matching" option by hijacking the Tractor Boys’ bid of around £18m for the England Under-21 star.
However, Villa will pay a lot less as their previous deal with Hull contained a 30 per cent sell-on clause.
Boss Unai Emery did not want Philogene to leave last summer but the player wanted first-team action.
But Emery is believed to have told the 22-year-old he will feature heavily next term, when Villa play in the Champions League.
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Philogene is not the only player the club has re-signed this week.
Villa have also brought back Cameron Archer from Sheffield United.
Archer was sold to the Blades last summer for an initial £3m and rising to £18m if they survived the drop
However, when United were relegated at the end of the season, a clause in the deal was triggered that allowed the Villans to bring Archer back.
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A statement from the Blades confirmed: "Sheffield United can confirm that Cameron Archer has returned to Aston Villa under terms of the initial transfer agreement.
"Thanks for your efforts, Cam."
England stars celebrate reaching Euro 2024 final with Wags as Ollie Watkins kisses girlfriend after late winner
Archer scored just four goals in 30 Premier League appearances last season.
Inside humble Ollie Watkins’ remarkable rise from non-league to England’s Euro 2024 hero
NINE summers ago Ollie Watkins went on a lads’ holiday after helping to save Conference South side Weston-Super-Mare from relegation, writes Dan King.
Now he’s just fired England into the Euro 2024 final with a sensational 90th-minute winner.
And even helped Aston Villa qualify for the Champions League last season.
Watkins arrived on the Somerset coast as a teenaged striker on loan from League Two Exeter in December 2014.
His 10 goals in 24 league games were a big factor in stopping Weston from slipping into the sixth tier for the first time in their history - and in giving them something to celebrate on a post-season trip to Spain.
But it was also his workrate and attitude that earned him the respect of the dressing room, and helped him take the first significant steps on the road to stardom.
Ryan Northmore, boss of Weston at the time, said: “His goals saved the club from relegation. But he contributed much more than his goals, which is really important when you’re scrapping away for your lives.
“He wasn’t just sat at the top of the pitch waiting for the ball to come. He would roll his sleeves up and get involved in all aspects of the game.”
Days after joining, Watkins made an instant impact with an equaliser against Farnborough.
Team-mate Tom Jordan said: “He always struck me as the kind of lad who had his eyes wide open to different aspects of the game.
“Sometimes you would have loan lads come in from a League club to non-League and they would be looking at you like they were doing you a favour.
“His attitude was very different. He was coming in thinking, ‘I’m going to learn from this experience’.”
It was during Watkins’ spell at Weston that the then Walsall boss Dean Smith spotted him.
Smith would later take the striker to Brentford and bring him to Villa, where he has reached new levels under current boss Unai Emery.
But Watkins has never forgotten the part that Weston played in his rise to the top.
One of his Villa shirts is on display there, he has spoken to young players coming through and happily tells the local press how important and enjoyable his time at the club was.
And he even helped fund an end-of-season boys’ trip to Spain due to his fines for being late - although he was allowed to join the rest of the squad.
Read all about Ollie Watkins' incredible rise in full...
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