Yahoo News Defender spotted with interested club's sporting director amid Aston Villa exit rumours
Alex Moreno has been spotted with the sporting director of his former club Real Betis amid uncertainty of his Aston Villa future - though the run-in is being labelled purely as 'coincidence'.
Unai Emery's early-summer movement in the transfer market will likely see Villa gain one of football's most exciting young full-backs in Ian Maatsen. The club agreed a £37.5m fee with Chelsea for the Dutchman last week and have been working to finalise the deal since.
Of course this will then leave the manager with a conundrum to solve on the left side of defence - what to do with his three established options?
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The promise of Maatsen will add to the experience of Digne, who has over 180 Premier League appearances, and the ability of Moreno. But with only one starting berth available, either of the latter two could depart and Spanish media believe they know the answer.
Estadio Deportivo have previously claimed Moreno 'is eager' to return to his former side 'as soon as possible'. This comes on the back of an injury-hit 2023/24 campaign, managing only 1,027 Premier League minutes of action over the whole season in comparison to the 1,339 he played during the last half of the prior campaign after his arrival.
Now fuelling such talk, the 31-year-old was revealed on a post by an X, formerly Twitter, user to have bumped into his former sporting director Manu Fajardo:
Again reporting on events, Estadio Deportivo at least squash the idea this was a planned meeting and say it was only under coincidental circumstances that both were collecting their bags upon arriving at Seville airport on the same day - Moreno from his honeymoon. They did however engage in a 'lively conversation', according to the report.
Explaining Betis' current situation, they say former Southampton left back Romain Perraud has become the first signing of the summer. However both Juan Miranda and Abner Vinicius are expected to leave in the coming months, so Manuel Pellegrini will likely be on the prowl for another recruit.
