Sevilla were always going to be difficult to deal with for Aston Villa. Feeling almost entitled to bargains, after becoming so used to them, and using all leverage possible to get their way, it’s rarely a smooth process when selling, or even loaning, a player to the Spanish side.
On July 7th, as the Jordan Amavi reports grew, we pointed out: ‘Sevilla never want to pay an asking price and will try every trick in the book to get a fee as low as possible. The best plan for selling clubs is to not agree to a loan or a deal weighted on bonuses, because if there’s any possible way Sevilla can negotiate agreed clauses down in the future then they’ll certainly try.’
Then, maybe by surprise, Sevilla and Aston Villa came to a relatively quick agreement, and Amavi was due in training on Monday. When he wasn’t there, and a deal hadn’t been announced, local Sevilla newspaper Estadio Deportivo contacted the player’s representatives, who told them it was down to an issue between Sevilla and Aston Villa over terms of payment.
They then reported ‘the reality is quite different’ pointing to concerns over Amavi’s knee during the medical.
Aston Villa are understandably furious. Assuming Amavi has failed a medical, and of course Tony Xia insists otherwise, to leak that to the media immediately isn’t really the done thing. It harms the player’s reputation, his perceived value, and therefore causes trouble for his current club.
JA’s medical report was good. Someone hi-level didn’t agree with the transfer&found a reason of injury history which is really unfair to JA. https://t.co/b2GsiINJQo
— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) July 10, 2017
But Sevilla were very keen the story got out there quickly. Which, at best, is not caring one jot for the reputation of a player who had just agreed to join them, or at worst, being overly eager to give themselves an excuse to not complete and having no care for the consequences.
Xia can be emotional, especially on Twitter, but it’s not too difficult to believe there could be some truth in what he’s saying over Amavi. Uncharacteristically, Sevilla had agreed to pay a price approaching reasonable, without too much drama, and someone panicking at the end is conceivable.
Sevilla, and their friendly media, haven’t yet responded to these accusations. They’ve been covered, but there’s no big reaction of eagerness from Sevilla to explain they’re in the right. One may expect the Seville sport media would look into the Aston Villa claims right away, there’d be more digging, but it looks like they’re happy to brush it all under the carpet.
For now, anyway.
