Morgan Sanson, an Aston Villa loanee, has undoubtedly ended his stint in the West Midlands after he declared he would stop at nothing to stay at OGC Nice indefinitely.
The 29-year-old midfielder wants to stay at the Allianz Riviera for the whole of the current season. He is currently on a season-long loan at the elite French team.
Nice has had an amazing start to the season, sitting second in the league with only one loss in their first 14 games. The Frenchman has made 14 appearances for the team in Ligue One thus far and has not missed a single one.
Nice announced in July that they will also have the option to sign the midfield player on a permanent basis at the end of this season. The Villa player acknowledged in an interview with Get Football News France on December 8 that he will make every effort to ensure that option is exercised.
When asked if he would like to stay, he replied, “Yes, totally.” Florent Ghisolfi expressed his desire for my long-term involvement in the project in the same words.
I believe I’ll remain here for a while, even if there is a permanent option with very achievable clauses. I’ll exert every effort to make sure the option is activated.
Sanson played just one minute off the bench in the Premier League’s first match against Manchester United and less than ten minutes in the second match against Leeds before moving to the French club on loan.
Few would have imagined that the then 26-year-old, who was expected to compete with Ross Barkley and John McGinn for starting spots, would be as useless as he ended up being when he departed for B6 back in 2021 for £16 million.
Prior to joining the team under Dean Smith, he became one of France’s most underappreciated midfield players.
Sanson demonstrated his quality enough to warrant a move to England during the first half of the 2020–21 season by starting four of Marseille’s Champions League group games and contributing five goals from the center of midfield.
He was a creative spark that year in France, when he averaged 1.4 critical passes per game (Who Scored). However, since joining Villa, he has only completed an average of 0.3 chance-creating passes per 90 minutes played.
It’s understandable why Sanson wants to continue at OGC Nice given how much he’s enjoying his time there and how close Paris Saint-Germain is to him with just four points. To cut to the chase, though, the 29-year-old was a costly £16 million error.
Getting Sanson off the pay bill will be a huge relief for everyone behind the scenes, especially as Aston Villa, under Unai Emery, has high goals for the future. He has declared this week that he will never set foot in Villa Park once more, so good bye.
