Aston Villa were active in the winter market, adding five new faces to their squad of which three were attackers and two defenders.
Donyell Malen was the first to arrive last month and joined them on a permanent transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
According to Sport1, Aston Villa invested €25m plus bonuses to buy the winger from the Bundesliga club.
The outlet have also relayed comments made by BVB sporting director Sebastian Kehl on the 26-year-old’s decision to leave Dortmund for the Villans.
On January 29th, Dortmund appointed Niko Kovač as their new manager and presented him to the media on Wednesday. Kehl, who accompanied the Croatian, was asked about the Netherlands international’s sale to Aston Villa.
When responding to this, the director ‘criticised’ the former PSV Eindhoven man. He made it clear the German club weren’t planning on to sell an attacker in the last window but changed their stance because of Aston Villa’s offer and Malen’s insistence.
“[Malen] no longer really had his head at Borussia Dortmund. In the condition he was in at the end, the transfer was a good solution. We actually didn’t want anyone to leave in this position,” he said.
“At some point, the offer developed into a dimension where we had to think about it. The player also made it clear to us that he wanted to do something new due to the length of his contract.”
The Dutchman joined BVB in 2021 and managed 39 goals and 20 assists from 139 games for them. The director claims his performances weren’t up to the mark this season, where he managed five goals and an assist from 21 matches.
“[Malen] didn’t get back to where he used to be [this season],” Kehl explained.
