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Needing someone to provide competition for Emiliano Martínez at Villa Park, Aston Villa turned their attention to Robin Olsen, who had been on loan from AS Roma at Sheffield United during the first half of the campaign.

The Sweden international already knew the Premier League from his previous spell at Everton, and so Steven Gerrard and co. decided to bring in the 32-year-old until the end of the season.

While Aston Villa didn’t mention any option to buy in their announcement of the deal, AS Roma did in theirs, while Gianluca Di Marzio, around the same time, reported the clause to make the move permanent stood at €3.5m.

Well, if Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday are to be believed, Aston Villa are thinking about triggering that, because, when looking at the future of all the players the Serie A side have on loan around the world, they state that ‘not even Robin Olsen will return, on loan with a right of redemption’ at Villa Park.

Now, for him to not return, he would have to stay where he is, and that means the Premier League club forking out €3.5m.

It does remain to be seen whether Gerrard does give the green light for such a deal, but if it means the Villans having a decent backup for Martínez going forward, we all know that peace of mind can sometimes almost be priceless.