Reason For Delay In Aston Villa Finalising Deal Emerges | OneFootball

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The delay in finalising an agreement with Atletico Madrid for Matteo Ruggeri was due to Aston Villa’s internal processes around signing the defender.

This summer Paris Saint-Germain triggered a release clause in Lucas Digne’s contract to take him back to France, leaving Unai Emery with a shortage of options in the left-back department.

Pervis Estupinan was on Aston Villa’s agenda but AC Milan boss Ruben Amorim wanted to take a look at the left-back which forced the Villa Park outfit to look at Atletico Madrid’s Ruggeri.

Ruggeri joined the Spanish giants from Atalanta last summer and for the 24-year-old’s signature, Diego Simeone’s side paid €17m to the Bergamo outfit.

Emery was keen to bring in a replacement for Digne and it was suggested that Villa were pushing to capture the signature of Ruggeri.

The Villans managed to strike an agreement with the Spanish giants regarding a transfer for the Italian left-back earlier this month and Aston Villa were waiting to find a ‘definitive yes’ from the player’s end to proceed with the move.

Ruggeri did not travel to South Korea with Atletico Madrid for pre-season, but despite an agreement with the Madrid outfit, the deal was stalled.

Ruggeri is now firmly on the way to joining Aston Villa though and the reason why the transfer was delayed has emerged.

According to Spanish journalist Marcos Duran, the delay in finalising the deal for Ruggeri was due to an internal procedure on the part of Aston Villa.

The Premier League giants did a thorough background search of the 24-year-old to avoid any future legal problems and decided to give a green signal for the move.

Villa are set to pay a fee in the region of €25m with €1.5m in bonuses to Atletico Madrid and the necessary paperwork has been exchanged between both clubs.

Ruggeri featured regularly for Atletico Madrid last season and made 47 appearances for them including 15 outings in the Champions League.

His arrival will hand Emery another left-back option.