Barcelona and Aston Villa have reached an agreement over a loan deal for centre-back Clement Lenglet, 90min understands.
Lenglet already has Premier League experience after spending last season on loan at Tottenham. He returned to Catalonia at the end of the campaign and has a contract until 2026 but isn't part of Xavi's plans and wasn't even assigned a squad number when La Liga kicked off.
Sources have confirmed to 90min that Lenglet will now return to England to play for Villa on loan with an option to buy.
The 28-year-old Frenchman will boost the Villa squad following the long-term knee injury set to rule Tyrone Mings out of action for the rest of the season.
As a former Europa League winner with Sevilla, albeit not during Unai Emery's time in charge there, Lenglet brings invaluable of European competition to a Villa squad on the cusp of reaching the Conference League group stage – they hold a 5-0 aggregate lead over Hibernian.
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Tottenham did consider trying to take Lenglet back to north London in early August and held talks with Barcelona over both him and then teammate Franck Kessie, who has since joined Al Ahli.
90min explained at the time that Lenglet was thought of as a possible alternative should Spurs fail to sign one of their primary defensive targets – Micky van de Ven or Edmond Tapsoba. A few days later, Van de Ven arrived from Wolfsburg for a fee potentially rising to £43m.
Villa's interest in Lenglet came much more recently, registering interest and holding talks with Barcelona just this week. There was interest in the player from the Saudi Pro League, although that was not an option he wanted to explore, while Real Betis and Rennes also enquired.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Aston Villa agree Clement Lenglet loan with Barcelona.
