Barcelona loanee struggling for game-time wanted by Ligue 1 giants in January

Clement Lenglet finds himself in a difficult situation in the Premier League with Aston Villa. Having joined the English club on loan from Barcelona in the summer, the 28-year-old has found minutes extremely hard to come by.

Indeed, Unai Emery has hardly called on the French international, mostly reserving him for the UEFA Europa Conference League.

As such, there has been a lot of rumblings around Lenglet’s future heading into January, with clubs like AC Milan, Napoli, and Bayern Munich understood to be open to signing him on loan.

Barcelona, for their part, would be open to facilitating such an arrangement as they are keen for the defender to play regularly so that they can sell him in the summer for a good sum.

Lyon enter the picture

And now, apart from the aforementioned clubs, Ligue 1’s faltering giants Olympique Lyon have also shown an interest in signing Clement Lenglet in the January transfer window.

Indeed, L’Equipe reports that Les Gones have been granted a fund of around €50 million to strengthen their roster in January and a number of names are on their radars, including that of Barcelona loanee Lenglet.

Whether they go ahead and act on it remains a whole different question, as a deal would be complicated given that the Frenchman is currently on loan at Aston Villa.

Aston Villa want to keep Lenglet

The Premier League club, for their part, are reluctant to let Lenglet terminate his loan contract and leave during the January transfer window.

Despite his limited minutes thus far, the Villans are happy with the Frenchman and chalk down his sparse involvement to the competition for places.

In fact, Aston Villa manager Unai Emery confirmed earlier this week that they do not want to release Lenglet in January, saying:

“I want to keep Lenglet at Villa in the second part of the season. Tomorrow (Friday, against Sheffield United) he will play. I’m really looking forward to seeing him, I’m really convinced he can help us.”

“We need all the players we have for the challenges we are going to face this season,” Emery added.