Everton target Aston Villa transfer after Unai Emery's honest assessment of player who 'didn't do it'
Everton have reportedly opened talks with Aston Villa over a permanent move for Jaden Philogene.
The winger was earmarked for a loan move this month having struggled to make an impact in the first half of the campaign. But it appears Everton are looking to take the 22-year-old out of Villa Park on a permanent basis.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims they have opened negotiations with Villa to sign Philogene. He re-signed for Villa in the summer having left for Hull City a year earlier.
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Villa agreed various clauses with Hull in that deal, including a 'matching rights' option, allowing Villa a three-day window to match a fee which Hull had agreed for the player from another club, plus a 30 per cent sell-on clause.
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Ipswich Town had an £18m bid for Philogene accepted and Villa chose to match the bid, leaving the decision up to him. Instead of joining newly-promoted Ipswich, he opted to return to Villa, who essentially paid around £13m for him due to the 30 per cent sell-on clause.
"He has a potential and he didn’t show his potential in the first six months being with us," Emery said of Philogene last week. "He played some important matches, against Bayern Munich and Manchester United. At that moment he was more or less given the opportunity to show his progress. He didn’t do it clearly and was playing less, but I believe in his potential.
"It (a loan) is one option for him and the club because there are lots of clubs interested in him. They believe in his potential. We are not close [to agreeing a loan] and as a coach I am not really wanting to let him leave, but we are speaking about the different options. Maybe it could be an option [loan].
"My conversation was always to be patient, take time to improve things. The adaptation is going slower than we wanted, but still in my mind the objective is to improve and help us here. Now it is January, it could be an option for him and the squad to let him leave."
