Aston Villa ‘in advanced talks with Everton’s Lucas Digne over £25m January transfer’ in blow to Chelsea and Newcastle
ASTON VILLA are favourites to Everton sign left-back Lucas Digne, reports say.
The two clubs have reached 'advanced negotiations' for the £25million transfer of Digne, 28.
According to , the move is set to go ahead, with personal terms between Digne and Villa not expected to be an issue.
The news comes after manager Rafael Benitez confirmed Digne wants to leave the club.
Villa will have beaten off competition from Newcastle United and Chelsea to secure the signing.
The Magpies were said to have won the race to add the left-back and compliment recent signing, Kieran Trippier, on the right hand side of their defence.
Chelsea were hoping to snag the French full-back amid their injury crises.
Digne would have been replacing a crocked Ben Chilwell, who will be out for the remainder of this season.
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The France international has been at the Merseyside club since 2018, making a total of 127 appearances.
But he has not appeared for the Toffees since they were beaten 4-1 by Liverpool at the beginning of December.
Benitez has chosen to pick Ben Godfrey or Seamus Coleman in the left-back position since.
The ex-Liverpool boss spoke about Digne's impending departure.
He said: "A couple of conversations with [Digne], he told me what he thought. What do you expect the manager to do when the player is thinking about to leave?
"The reality is we need players who want to be here, for any reason. Talking about individual stats when the team finished 10th? It means nothing to me."
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