Arsenal have confirmed that Lino Sousa has joined Aston Villa on a permanent deal, two years after joining the Gunners from West Bromwich Albion.
The England youth international leaves without making an appearance for the first team although he was on the bench for the Champions League group stage dead rubber at PSV Eindhoven and the FA Cup third round defeat to Liverpool at the start of January. He was also taken to Dubai for the warm-weather training camp in the middle of the month.
Even though Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jurrien Timber are not orthodox left-backs, the fact they all have experience in that position and sit ahead of Sousa in the pecking order makes it easy to understand why he’s had his head turned.
We don’t know for certain but it looks like his current deal was due to end in June and we’ve not heard any noise about the club trying to keep him; a stark contrast to the way Ethan Nwaneri’s contract talks played out last summer. Villa have handed him a contract that ends in 2029.
It sounds like Unai Emery doesn’t think he’s ready for the first team and have already arranged for him to spend the second half of the season on loan at Plymouth. It’ll be interesting to follow his development in the coming years.
Good luck, Lino! Just not against Arsenal, of course!
He’s way too handsome to be a Brummie…
Sturridge’s brother?
Good luck to the lad hope he does well !