SHARE

Defender Clement Lenglet has not yet ‘gained the trust’ of Aston Villa manager Unai Emery, hence his lack of appearances at the club so far.

That’s according to Sport, who cover the defender today and how ‘nobody remembers’ him at Barcelona after his departure in the summer.

Lenglet joined Aston Villa on loan at the end of the summer transfer window as part of an ‘emergency solution’ worked up to get him out of the Camp Nou.

He has a contract with Barcelona until 2026 and had refused to leave on a free transfer and give up wages owed, leaving the club ‘desperate’ to get rid of him in any way they could.

Weeks of negotiations with Tottenham to send him back there did not work out and they eventually sent him to Aston Villa, who were seen as a ‘lifesaver’ by taking part of his salary on for this season.

He’s yet to ‘earn a position’ at the club since his arrival, though, despite having left a good image of himself in the Premier League last year on loan at Tottenham.

So far Lenglet has ‘not managed to gain the trust’ of Unai Emery, who is yet to hand him a chance in the Premier League and has only used him in the Conference League.

The defender doesn’t seem to have it easy either as he is yet to recover his previous levels shown at Sevilla or in his first year at Barcelona and has Pau Torres, one of Aston Villa’s big money summer signings, ahead of him in the pecking order. So far, the Spaniard has been ‘immovable’ for Emery.

That’s something of a problem for Barcelona, who would have been hoping he could feature regularly so they could perhaps move him on next summer, which at the moment seems unlikely to happen.