Set to sign 

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Aston Villa’s busy January transfer window looks set to rumble on, with the club expected to part ways with winger Donyell Malen. According to Fabrizio Romano, the Dutch forward is on the verge of a move to Roma, where he will join on an initial loan deal with a mandatory clause to make the move permanent in the summer transfer window. If figures are to be believed, the total fee the Serie A side will pay for the 26-year-old talent will stand at just over €31 million – making Malen the Birmingham club’s seventh most expensive sale of all time.

Malen made the move to Villa just 12 months ago, when he joined the Premier League side from Borussia Dortmund for €25m. In that time, Malen has been a solid addition to Unai Emery’s side, scoring 10 goals and providing a further two assists in 46 games across all competitions. However, with the arrival of right winger Evann Guessand (€30m signing from Nice) and Jadon Sancho (on loan from Manchester United), as well as Emiliano Buendía returning from a loan move at Bayer Leverkusen, Malen found himself tumbling down the pecking order and as such featured in just 34% of Villa’s league matches before agreeing to depart the club.

So far in this window the Villa Park side have signed Gremio right winger Alysson for €10m and Metz centre forward Brian Madjo for €12m and have been linked with moves for a number of other players. As such, moving on a player of Malen’s stature and agreeing a sizable transfer fee for the summer will go someway to offsetting the club’s new signings. Not to mention the fact that the English side stand to make a €6m profit on the Dutch winger, despite only having him at the club for around 12 months.