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Doctor Tony Xia, Aston Villa’s owner, has dismissed recent speculation that Sam Johnstone will be heading back to his parent club, Manchester United, before signing for West Bromwich Albion for a fee of around £4 million.
Just like all stories to fill with newspaper space. He will be with us, hopefully we go up then he will be permanently. I think Villa is his fortunate place.. .
— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) January 2, 2018
With a quick tweet, Dr. Xia rubbished any talk of Johnstone going anywhere but Villa, adding that the club are Sam Johnstone’s ‘fortunate place.’
The story was all but confirmed as a done deal by reporters from The Daily Star, TeamTALK and The Daily Express, which worried a whole bunch of Aston Villa fans (including us).
Our bet? West Bromwich Albion had asked about Sam Johnstone and have went no further. Here’s the deal - The Baggies don’t need a goalkeeper. Ben Foster is hardly bad, and even his understudy, former Villan Boaz Myhill, isn’t bad. Why waste money on a rotation option between the sticks when you really need to score some goals? He’d be a great signing for most clubs, no doubt, but The Baggies can’t really afford to waste money on Sam Johnstone.
Here’s hoping Villa go up with Johnstone, so we can make this signing permanent.