“Almost done” – Aston Villa close in on €20m transfer deal according to Fabrizio Romano

Aston Villa have seen their team gutted this summer, and need to continue strengthening in the transfer market.

If you enjoy CaughtOffside coverage and want to see more of it, add us as a preferred source on Google to make us a favourite and see more of our content.

Aston Villa had a great season last time out. They qualified for the Champions League and then won the Europa League as a bonus.

It’s a sad reality of modern football that those high moments are often followed by a team being broken up – and that’s just what’s happened at Villa Park. Morgan Rogers has gone to Chelsea, Lucas Digne to PSG, Youri Tielemans to Man U and Amadou Onana has done his ACL.

They need to build back, and after making a few additions in attack, they now look set to replace Digne at left back with an interesting option.

Romano says Ruggeri deal “almost done” for €20m

Fabrizio Romano is today reporting that the Villains are in for Matteo Ruggeri of Atletico Madrid. He says the two teams have agreed a €20m fee for the defender, who joined Atletico a year ago from Atalanta.

The Italian transfer insider concludes that there are a “few more steps needed then it could get done.”

This one is moving fast, and we’d expect it could be completed within a week. Ruggeri is a really promising defender who just didn’t quite fit in Madrid. This could prove to be another really smart deal by Villa’s transfer team.

Once this deal is done, they will need to focus on finding a top midfielder to keep the team together with Tielemans gone and with Onana set to miss most of the season. It will be very interesting to see where they go from here.

??? Aston Villa and Atlético Madrid have agreed on €20m deal for Matteo Ruggeri.

The Italian left back also gave green light to the move with contract terms now being negotiated.

Few more steps needed then it could get done. pic.twitter.com/5sfS3LHzEc

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 8, 2026