Aston Villa were linked with countless players during the summer window, as the club looked to kick on and help Unai Emery climb the Premier League table.
Barcelona’s Abde was one of the players said to be of interest to the Birmingham club, and Catalan newspaper Sport now explains the drama around the 21-year-old in the last window.
The left winger was very much out of Xavi Hernandez’s plans, and therefore, Barcelona were looking to make money from him.
Aston Villa and Bayer Leverkusen both made contact to try and clinch the signing, but Sport report the youngster completely refused to leave Spain and that caused a problem for the Blaugrana.
Real Betis were interested but only wanted a loan with an option to buy, and that wasn’t good enough for Barcelona. So they then tried to send Abde to Atletico Madrid as part of the deal which saw Joao Felix move the other way on loan.
At this point of the drama, Abde made clear it was either a move to Real Betis or he’d stay with Barcelona. That stamping of the feet saw Barca return to Betis, with the pair of clubs managing to agree a deal for 50% of his rights.
Maybe it was a drama that Aston Villa were lucky to stay out of.
