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Aston Villa make Joel Ordonez approach as Ezri Konsa replacement search steps up
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- Aston Villa make Joel Ordonez approach as Ezri Konsa replacement search steps up
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Aston Villa have made an approach to Club Brugge for highly-rated Ecuador international Joel Ordonez as the club step up their attempts to replace Ezri Konsa following his move to Arsenal .
David Ornstein and Jacob Tanswell of The Athletic report that Villa have now made contact with the Belgian club over the 22-year-old, having initially revealed on August 21 that Ordonez was a player admired and tracked by those responsible for recruitment at Villa Park.
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At that stage there was some uncertainty over whether Villa would be prepared to commit the level of finance required to sign Ordonez, particularly with Unai Emery's squad still requiring strengthening further forward, but their interest has now developed and he is understood to be one of three central defensive options being considered following Konsa's £51million plus add-ons move to Arsenal.
It comes alongside Villa's pursuit of Southampton defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis, with The Athletic reporting that an offer worth £18million plus add-ons has already been rejected. Harwood-Bellis was left out of Southampton's 2-1 win over Stoke City on Saturday amid uncertainty over his future and discussions remain ongoing, although the two clubs are currently apart in their respective valuations.
I have already said that I am uncertain on Harwood-Bellis and can't fully understand why Villa are looking at him as the answer to replacing Konsa. There are plussed with him, particularly when you consider his age, Premier League experience and the fact he is association-trained, but I wasn't particularly comfortable with the idea of him being the only central defender brought in to replace Konsa.
Konsa has been such an important player for Villa and replacing him was never going to be straightforward, so I would like to see a little more ambition and upside attached to the recruitment rather than simply finding somebody who can come in and fill the position. That is why the Ordonez interest is particularly encouraging, whether Villa ultimately sign him or not.
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Tracking two right sided central defenders could actually point to Lindelof's future being in midfield, this season.
I will admit straight away that I don't know an awful lot about Ordonez beyond what I have seen and read since Villa's interest emerged, so I am not going to pretend to have watched him every week in Belgium , but his career path and the profile Villa are looking at is something I really like.
Ordonez came through in Ecuador before joining Club Brugge in 2022 and has since established himself at senior level while also becoming a full Ecuador international. At 22 he already has considerable European experience, with UEFA recording 22 Champions League appearances and 33 appearances across UEFA competitions in total.
He was also heavily involved during Club Brugge's run to the Conference League semi-finals in 2023/24, making 11 appearances in that competition, before becoming a regular in the Champions League over the following seasons. That is a decent amount of high-level experience for a centre-back who only turned 22 in April and, importantly, still has plenty of development ahead of him.
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That type of recruitment is something I have wanted to see Villa explore more often. You look at clubs such as Brentford and Brighton in the Premier League, or Bayer Leverkusen in Germany , and there has regularly been an emphasis on identifying players from markets where there is still development and value to be found, getting them before they become established at one of Europe's biggest clubs and then benefiting from their progression.
Villa have obviously operated at a different level over the last few years and are now shopping for players capable of competing in the Champions League, but that doesn't mean every signing has to be a finished Premier League player or somebody everybody already knows. There has to be room within the recruitment strategy for players who are already performing at a good European level but whose best years should still be ahead of them.
Ordonez appears to fit much more closely into that bracket. He is already an Ecuador international, has been exposed to Champions League football and is playing regularly for one of Belgium's biggest clubs, but at 22 you would hope Villa would be buying a player who can improve considerably under Emery and his coaching staff rather than somebody approaching the ceiling of what they can become.
There is, of course, a financial consideration. Ornstein and Tanswell report that any permanent deal for Ordonez would likely represent a more expensive overall package than Harwood-Bellis, while Villa also have other areas of the squad which need addressing before the transfer window closes.
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That is why I actually quite like the two names alongside each other. Harwood-Bellis offers something different in terms of his background and familiarity with English football, while Ordonez represents the sort of younger European-market signing with significant room to develop that Villa perhaps haven't made enough of recently.
Whether Villa can get either deal to the point where the finances make sense remains to be seen, but after losing Konsa I wanted to see them properly attack the centre-back market rather than simply settle for the easiest replacement available. The fact Ordonez is firmly in that conversation, and Villa have now gone as far as approaching Club Brugge, makes the direction of the search considerably more encouraging.
