‘Difficult’ for club to trigger option to buy Aston Villa player – Transfer currently a ‘pipe dream’

Unable to convince Unai Emery at Aston Villa, Leander Dendoncker needed a new club in January to get some minutes under his belt.

In need of a defensive midfielder, Napoli, who failed in their attempts to sign Orel Mangala from Nottingham Forest, knocked on the Villa Park doors and offered to take the Belgian on loan with an option to buy.

A deal was swiftly organised between Aston Villa and the Serie A side, but Gazzetta dello Sport on Tuesday heavily hint that Dendoncker will be returning to England at the end of the season.

The newspaper look at who will likely stay next season in Naples, and they firmly place the Belgium international in the list of players expected to leave.

They explain that it’s ‘difficult’ for Dendoncker’s loan to be made permanent, because the €9m in the option to buy are ‘too much’.

They add that the thought of keeping the Aston Villa loanee around is, for now, a ‘pipe dream’, suggesting there is a high chance, unless something changes dramatically, that we see the 28-year-old back in the Midlands at the end of the season.