Jordan Veretout arrived at Aston Villa from Nantes with great hopes. There were several other clubs interested, and it was thought by some in France the Premier League move was too soon, but Villa offered a good deal and the club and player accepted.
L’Equipe cover the move in their Friday edition and say Veretout would have rather seen himself going to Spain when the time came to leave France, but quote the player as saying: “England came to me, and you can’t refuse.”
Veretout played 29 games for Aston Villa, not appearing again after coming off as a substitute on March 19th against Swansea City. L’Equipe say there’s a very good reason for that: Aston Villa were due to pay Nantes a bonus if the midfielder played 30 games in the season.
The now Saint Etienne player is then quoted as saying: “I even saw a striker come back to the middle.”
Going back to France, initially on loan, wasn’t the only option for Veretout, who told L’Equipe he had offers to continue in England’s top flight: “I could have stayed in the Premier League… but I did not want to relive a season in the bottom of the rankings.
“What I wanted was to find fun playing and the taste of victory. Saint Etienne offers me the challenge.”
