Done Deal: Aston Villa confirm second January transfer as £20m budget boost landed

Aston Villa have confirmed the departure of young winger Jaden Philogene, with the 22-year-old joining Premier League rivals Ipswich Town in a permanent deal just six months after the England Under-21 international rejoined Unai Emery’s side.

The transfer fee is officially undisclosed but The Athletic are reporting that the Tractor Boys are paying an initial £20m for Philogene, with up to £3m in add-ons included in a deal which is expected to give the young winger a chance for more first-team minutes. The London-born wideman made just 21 appearances from the Villans across his two stints at the club.

In a club statement, Villa confirmed the deal and added that they “ would like to thank Jaden for his service to the club and wish him all the very best in his future career” as he prepares to play for his fifth club in three years.

Why did Villa sell Philogene?

Philogene was re-signed off the back of an impressive season at Hull in which he scored 12 goals in 32 league games, including a stunning Rabona strike which was nominated for the 2024 Puskas Award, but he struggled to establish himself in Emery’s first team.

An academy product who also rose through the England youth ranks while with Villa, playing for both the Under-20s and Under-21s, the winger built his reputation up with loan spells at Stoke City and Cardiff City in the Championship before earning a permanent deal with the Tigers where he established himself as one of the most lethal players in the second tier.

Philogene, who played just six minutes of Premier League football for the club during his first stint as a Villan, made just four starts following his £18m transfer in the summer, failing to score or contribute an assist in any competition. That meant that the opportunity to turn a quick profit on him may have been too tempting to pass up. Ipswich had also been linked with a bid for Philogene in the summer, but the winger chose to return to his first club thanks to the chance to play in the Champions League, in which he made three appearances.

The £25m arrival of Dutch international Donyell Malen may have been another contributing factor, with the former Borussia Dortmund man likely to eat into the minutes that would have been available to Philogene, who can play on both flanks but was already below the likes of Leon Bailey and John McGinn in the pecking order.

Will Villa make a profit from the deal?

Philogene, who came through Villa’s academy and made his senior debut in 2021, left the club to join Hull City in the Championship in the summer of 2023 but re-signed last summer for a fee reported to be worth £18m, although a sell-on clause in the deal with the Tigers means that they Villa have paid considerably less for his services in July, with the BBC reporting that the deal cost Villa just £13.5m.

That means that Villa can expect to net a pre-tax profit of at least £6.5m on Philogene’s swift sale, news of which was first reported last week, with the potential for more if he reaches certain targets for add-on payments. The club will have made a further profit on the original sale of the winger to Hull - the fee for the 2023 deal was not made public but was believed to be close to £5m.