Recent reports confirm that Aston Villa have parted ways with Pierluigi Gollini. The 23-year-old former Manchester United goalkeeper has gone on to join Italian outfit, Atalanta. Atalanta has exercised their option to sign the goalkeeper on a permanent basis after they got Gollini on an 18-month loan deal from Villa Park in January 2017.
The deal is said to be worth around £3.75m and the Bologna-born keeper will ply his trade in Serie A from the next season. He made just 8 appearances last season but it appears that he has done enough to push the Italian side to make a permanent move for him. He did manage to keep clean sheets in 4 games and the youngster will now continue his future development in his homeland Italy.
He made 20 appearances for Aston Villa after he signed for them from Verona. He was a regular under Roberto De Matteo but since Steve Bruce took the top job, he became out of favour. His last appearance for the Villans was in December 2016 against Norwich City. Later in January, he completed a loan move to Atalanta.
Aston Villa narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Premier League as they lost the playoff finals and now they are in a financial turmoil which might see a few more players depart the club.
A lot was dependent on Villa’s qualification and their failure to achieve that has brought the club under a lot of pressure off the field. They are under pressure from Financial Fair Play to recover £40m to comply with their rules and regulations. The £4m odd deal for Gollini will make a small dent in that figure and that is one of the reasons why we can see a few more departures in the summer.
They have also been threatened with a winding-up order from HMRC following a late tax bill worth up to £5million and the club seems to be in doldrums off the pitch.
Aston Villa have already lost their services of a regular no1 from last season as Sam Johnstone has gone back to his parent club Manchester United after his loan spell was completed. It remains to be seen whether they will make a permanent move for him in the summer.
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With Gollini departing, we might see Jed Steer start in goal at Villa Park in the next season and the 25-year-old has made just 8 appearances for Aston Villa and he is yet not tested. Selling Gollini might come them to bite back but at the moment, Villa are in need of money and that could be one of the reasons why they let the Italian shot-stopper leave.
