Aston Villa finally agreed a deal on Friday to secure Unai Emery the striker he’s been looking for.
After over a week of negotiations with Beşiktaş for Tammy Abraham, a breakthrough was made.
The Turkish club had publicly made clear their desire to take Aston Villa players as part of the deal. Initially, it was claimed in Turkey that Evann Guessand could be involved in the transfer.
Aston Villa would send the 24-year-old on loan to Beşiktaş for 18 months. That would bring the price seriously down for Abraham, and provide the Turkish club with a replacement.
However, Guessand’s agent appeared to be taken aback when such suggestions were put to him. On January 16th, that agent told the Turkish media his client is going nowhere in January.
Beşiktaş president Serdal Adal said at the time: “There is an offer for Abraham. We do not favour Abraham’s departure. There are no other players offered. If he comes, we will sit down and think about it. Another team from England is interested. We don’t think of sending it somewhere. We will see what will come our way. There is no player in the offer we received. There are players that the technical staff want from Aston Villa. We conveyed it to them.”
Then it was a case of going back to the drawing board and seeing who could be sent.
Yasin Özcan, currently on loan at RSC Anderlecht and having a miserable time, became the obvious option. Aston Villa offered €21m plus the defender and it was enough for Beşiktaş.
Then it was reported in Turkey that Tammy Abraham would be flying to England at 6pm on Friday.
Aston Villa medical this weekend
Saturday’s edition of Sabah has a headline reading: ‘KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE TAMMY!’
Whilst we’ll leave aside the fact that headline doesn’t really work, there’s happiness because Beşiktaş get the money they want plus a talented young defender.
Meanwhile, Sporx report Abraham will be having his Aston Villa medical today, with all aspects of the transfer agreed. Personal terms, as usual these days, were sorted out before a fee was agreed.
