Barcelona had earlier confirmed Mateu Alemany will leave on June 30th and Aston Villa was set to be his next destination. The chief had made a trip to Birmingham to finalise a move to Villa Park.
On Wednesday, reports from Spain stated the 60-year-old will ditch the Villans and continue at the Camp Nou.
Alemany’s decision to snub Aston Villa to extend his stay at Barca is covered by several Catalan newspapers today and we focus on Sport.
He travelled to England, where the Premier League side had offered him a deal which the La Liga side couldn’t match. This was already confirmed by Barca chief Eduard Romeu last week.
After the visit, Alemany ‘took a period of reflection that has led him to back down.’ Sources have told Sport there were no problems with the terms offered by Villa, but the issues were with the sporting project.
Aston Villa had initially promised Alemany ‘freedom’ and a large budget to carry out signings to reshape Unai Emery’s squad.
Following his trip to England, he was able to verify that the Premier League side are ‘not willing to invest’ in the project he wants to build.
Alemany was disappointed with this and backed out of the deal to join Aston Villa.
At least, that’s the Catalan slant.
