A week ago an imminent announcement was expected from Sevilla to confirm the signing of Jordan Amavi from Aston Villa.
A fee had been agreed, personal terms were sorted out and Aston Villa hadn’t found dealing with Sevilla as difficult as many clubs do. The Spanish side use every trick they can to get prices down, almost always prefer loans, and seem to go into temporary deals without the best intentions.
All clubs look after their own interests, of course, but Sevilla seem frequently happy to cross a line others wouldn’t. Perhaps Aston Villa and Amavi should have sensed that things had gone too smoothly and there was trouble ahead.
On Monday, Sevilla’s local media reported in unison that Amavi had failed a medical, due to ‘a risk in his knee’, and the Aston Villa transfer was subsequently off.
Sport Witness noted at the time: ‘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.’
Sunday’s edition of L’Equipe reports that both Aston Villa and Amavi’s representatives have requested Sevilla provide them with a copy of the medical report. The French newspaper don’t believe they’ll ever get it, which is a concern on its own.
Since Sevilla so publicly revealed that Amavi had failed a medical, the player has undergone two further ‘medicals’, on Wednesday with an English specialist and then with 
a specialist from France. The Aston Villa player passed both.
L’Equipe quote a relative of the player as saying: “It’s a total enigma for us. It was proven that he had nothing (wrong) and that his knee was perfect. One has the feeling that they had to find a reason.”
Sevilla have apparently now communicated that a loan remains an option, something so obviously possible, or even probable, that Sport Witness also pointed that out on Monday.
The Spanish club’s reputation on transfers deserves to be a lot shakier than it currently is.
