Reports in France claim Aston Villa will not have to pay Marseille the balance of their fee for Morgan Sanson until the summer months.
Sanson, 26, moved to Villa Park from the Ligue 1 club on January 26. The former France Under-21 ace penned a four-and-a-half-year contract with the West Midlanders.
It was a transfer that led to the departure of Marseille manager Andre Villas-Boas. He was vocal in his opposition to the deal, making it clear he did not want Celtic’s Olivier Ntcham as a replacement.
He tended his resignation but L’OM got in first and stated they had already sacked the Portuguese coach. A fee of £14m was agreed between the clubs but it seems as though Villa have been able to defer their final payment.
France Football (via Sport Witness) are reporting that the Villans paid €11m up front. They will then need to make a second payment of €4m in the off-season. The French publication explain that the payment was ‘cut in slices’, with add-ons available.
Sanson has played only 10 minutes of football for Dean Smith’s side to date. And he will need to make many more to activate the payment of a further €3m in bonuses for Les Phoceens.
It seems Villa’s total outlay will be closer to £15m than the £14m reported when the reckoning is completed.
Exciting times for Villa
Sanson was bought with a view of adding further quality to the midfield. He has yet to make any great contribution but it is early days and his time will come.
Smith will certainly be hoping that he dovetails well with Jack Grealish. The England man is enjoying a superb campaign, having played virtually every minute of Villa’s league campaign.
He admitted to having an excellent relationship with Smith. But the man with three England caps joked that being hauled off three minutes from time against Newcastle angered him.
“I can’t really give him enough praise, the only negative I can give him is that he took me off the other week,” he told Peter Crouch on BT Sport. “I was fuming I was, I was devastated. When my number went up I thought surely he’s got the wrong number there.”
Villa’s next task is a trip to the south coast to take on Brighton on Saturday. They are six places and 10 points better off than the Seagulls.
However, Graham Potter’s men are in decent form and a tough contest is expected.
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