Sources: Aston Villa set to offload Engels for knockdown fee | OneFootball

Aston Villa are planning to offload Bjorn Engels this summer, Football Insider can reveal.

The 26-year-old has dropped down the pecking order of Dean Smith’s squad and has no future at the club.

A Villa source has told Football Insider that Engels will be told the club want to let him go and he is free to find a new club.

The Midlands giants have little hope of recouping the £7million fee they paid French club Stade Reims for the Belgian in the summer of 2019.

He has three years remaining on his contract but is still likely to leave for considerably less than that.

Engels was deployed as Tyrone Mings’ partner in the first half of last season and started 15 Premier League matches before the March lockdown.

But he has subsequently struggled for game time to the point where he has been virtually frozen out this season.

Engels has not had a single minute of senior action this term and dropped down to play for the Under-23s as an over-age player earlier this month.

Smith had initially been planning to let the centre-back go last summer before changing his mind shortly before the window shut.

But that is unlikely to happen again, with the former Belgium Under-21 international failing to even get on the pitch all season.

He has been a regular on the sub’s bench but Tyrone Mings and Ezri Knoza are firmly established as the first choice centre-back pairing with Kortney Hause as back-up.

In other news, Aston Villa are lining up a huge bid for 21-year-old attacker at Premier League rivals.