Leon Bailey’s father, Leon Butler, has admitted he wanted to see his son join Ajax earlier in his career, but they have no regrets over the move to Aston Villa.
Butler has been speaking to Voetbal International in the Netherlands as part of a piece looking at Bailey, who is set to take on Ajax with Aston Villa in the Europa League on Thursday.
We covered comments from him earlier today, detailing how Bailey had nearly joined Ajax on three separate occasions in his career, with the last potential switch coming in 2022.
Obviously, none of those moves came to anything, with the forward instead joining Bayer Leverkusen and impressing there before eventually joining Aston Villa, where he has turned around a difficult start to be one of the stars under Unai Emery.
Things are indeed going well, and his father insists they are both happy, even if he would have loved to see his son playing for Thursday’s opponents Ajax.
“We were always very close, but the final push from Ajax was missing,” he said.
“I would have liked to see it happen. Who knows how it would all have turned out, but we stand by the choices we made. In retrospect, it was the steps that were necessary.
“Leon’s transfer to Aston Villa has turned out well. He’s doing well and he loves the fans. Who knows where Leon would have been now if he had gone to Ajax, because Ajax has produced great players worldwide.
“If Leon had signed with Ajax, he would probably have been sold for a lot more money, but money isn’t everything.”
