Aston Villa transfer news: Leon Bailey blow incoming as Roma 'consider' winger's future

Aston Villa may reportedly be about to suffer a blow regarding the future of Leon Bailey.

Having contributed 22 goals and 24 assists across 144 appearances for Villa between 2021 and 2025, the winger has enjoyed a strong period in the West Midlands.

However, his Villa career was believed to be at an end when he made the switch to Roma during the summer transfer window.

The Serie A giants paid a loan fee in the region of €3m (£2.62m) for the winger while also possessing a buy option worth approximately €22m (£19.22m).

Given Villa's well-documented issues with the Premier League's and UEFA's financial regulations, club chiefs would have been hopeful of parting ways with the Jamaica international on a permanent basis.

Aston Villa to suffer Bailey blow?

Instead, as per Il Romanista, it is increasingly likely that Roma will send Bailey back to the Premier League club in January.

A number of injuries have restricted the 28-year-old to one start and nine substitute outings in all competitions, just 237 minutes being accumulated in the process.

While Bailey was introduced as a substitute against Juventus over the weekend, he was withdrawn 20 minutes later due to a muscle strain.

Therefore, patience is said to have run out with Bailey, who has not played longer than 50 minutes in any of his 10 appearances and has just one assist to his name.

Even if Bailey remained at Stadio Olimpico for the remainder of the season, Roma have no interest in pushing through a permanent deal.

What is best Bailey solution for Villa?

At the present time, there appears to be no way back for Bailey at Villa, particularly when the club sit in third position in the Premier League table.

That said, Villa will highly likely be cutting short a loan of their own with there being an unwillingness to play Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott due to a reluctance to exercise a permanent deal.

Theoretically, despite their different positions, it may make sense for Unai Emery to replace Elliott with Bailey in order for the club to remain in control of trying to generate a sizeable fee for him in the summer.

If he were to remain at Roma, it would take an upturn in fortunes to prevent his valuation from decreasing significantly at a time when his contract expires in 2027.