The French centre-back returns to the Premier League, where he spent last season with Tottenham

Barcelona have finally unblocked the situation with Clement Lenglet. The Catalan giants have made official the departure of the centre-back, who will spend this season at Aston Villa on loan without an option to buy, as the club explained in a statement on Friday. 

The deal was completed quickly in the final days of the market after negotiations with Tottenham, where he played last season, failed to progress. Now Lenglet returns to the Premier League under Unai Emery. 

FC Barcelona said:

"FC Barcelona and Aston Villa Football Club have reached an agreement for the loan of the player Clement Lenglet until 30 June 2024. There is no option to buy.

"Lenglet will therefore return to England, this time to Aston Villa, after playing for Tottenham Hotspur last season. With Spurs, the centre-back played a total of 35 games, 26 of them in the Premier League.

"As a Barça player, Lenglet has made 160 appearances in four seasons, scoring seven goals and providing three assists. He also won one league title (18/19), one Copa del Rey (20/21) and one Spanish Super Cup (18/19)."

Barça were finding it complicated to place Lenglet because of the Frenchman's high salary (16 million euros gross per season). Sevilla had appeared on the scene in the last few hours, but would only assume around 30% of the wage, an amount that the Catalan club considered insufficient. Aston Villa will cover a higher percentage of the salary, pending the official figures of the loan.

The main idea of Barça was to get a transfer not only to save his salary, which would mean reducing the wage bill, but also because he did not count for Xavi and from the sporting direction it was clear that the defender should leave the club, something that the player himself accepted.