Footie Central | Football Blog Blogging the football world
Everton full-back Lucas Digne has turned down the chance to join Chelsea.
Instead, the French international is in advanced talks to move to Aston Villa instead.
Digne was one of the men put on a shortlist of candidates by Chelsea as they look for full-back replacements with Ben Chilwell set to miss most of the rest of the season with the knee injury he picked up in a Champions League match against Juventus.
The left-back moved to the Merseyside club from Barcelona in 2018 and has made more than 100 appearances for them, but has fallen out of favour with manager Rafa Benitez, and has been allowed to leave the club following the signing of Ukraine international Vitaliy Mykolenko.
No fee has yet been agreed for Digne, who was also wanted by West Ham and Newcastle, but it is believed to be between £20 and £25 million.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.