Aston Villa’s silent signing from Barcelona could be added in the squad when necessary next year, either in the summer or before.
Aston Villa signed a number of players last summer with 11 new for the first team to replace those who left, including the key figures such as Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, Ezri Konsa and Emiliano Martinez. Apparently, those 11 new players were not the only ones the Lions signed. They have reportedly secured a move for a talented figure from Barcelona Athletic or the U21 team with an undisclosed fee.
According to the report in Sportwitness, Aston Villa used their network under their ownership group to make a silent signing for the youngster, David Oduro from the Catalan giant and they did.
“Unai Emery and co plan to sign Oduro and then place him with French club Annecy. They are also owned by Aston Villa’s ownership and compete in Ligue 2.”
The Clarets and Blue appeared to work on Oduro’s deal under the radar. They did prepare this silent signing by placing the youngster in a ‘strategic plan’ with FC Annecy as the protagonist in the negotiation.
Villa won the race to sign him against Portuguese outfit Tondela, and Austria side Strum Graz in August 2026. Oduro’s parent club, Barcelona keeps the 50 % of future sale rights so that they still can benefit from his development.
This kind of deal seemed to work well to avoid the noise and the spotlight since Unai Emery’s side was not heavily mentioned in his move. Even in Barcelona’s official site, it was said that Oduro was sold permanently to Annecy not Villa. Such could help Emery’s side to sign him plus keep tabs on his development from afar without too much attention from the media.
The 20-year old left back was highly rated in the Barcelona youth side due to his physical prowess. He made 33 appearances in two seasons and registered one goal and one assist.
With the growing concern of the left back crisis in Aston Villa this season, especially if more players are injured and have to be sidelined for a long time, Oduro could be loaned to Emery’s side to provide the squad depth in that position.
Unfortunately, the Ghanaian international has yet to impress much in FC Annecy. He has yet to make senior debut with the team and only featured once with B team instead. His progress has been quite slow. So, unless the crisis becomes worse and Oduro can develop himself rapidly, Villa would not risk bringing him too early to England. He seems to still have plenty to learn before getting promoted to Villa’s first team.
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