Donyell Malen

[SaddVillan]

From The Athletic

ASTON VILLA IN TALKS TO SIGN BORUSSIA DORTMUND FORWARD DONYELL MALEN

David Ornstein

Aston Villa are in talks with Borussia Dortmund over a potential deal to sign Donyell Malen.

Villa have made an offer for the forward worth around €18million (£14.9m, $18.6m) plus add-ons, which falls short of Dortmund’s valuation but negotiations continue between the clubs.

The Premier League side are looking to strengthen their squad with a versatile attacker and Malen is high among multiple candidates.

The 25-year-old Dutch international, who is contracted until 2026, has started six of his team’s 15 Bundesliga games so far this season and scored five goals across all competitions — including twice in the Champions League.

Malen made four appearances for the Netherlands at Euro 2024, finding the net twice in their round of 16 victory over Romania and starting the semi-final defeat against England.

He joined Dortmund from PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 2021 — scoring 39 goals in 131 appearances and featuring eight times for Dortmund during a run to the 2024 Champions League final, where he was a second-half substitute in the 2-0 defeat by Real Madrid.

Villa are ninth in the English top-flight and next play at home to Leicester City on January 4.

Malen would fit Villa’s missing profile - Analysis from Aston Villa correspondent Jacob Tanswell

Villa have been open to signing a multi-faceted forward in January for some time, having been short of an option across the front line since Moussa Diaby’s departure in the summer.

Malen would suit the criteria of a forward, like Diaby, who can operate across several positions such as a second forward and wide player and share the goal scoring burden on Jhon Duran and Ollie Watkins, in turn replacing the goals lost from Diaby and Douglas Luiz last season, as well as Leon Bailey, who has struggled for form this term.

There has always been an internal acknowledgment, however, that any moves will be dependent on the conditions of the deal and if they remain within the club’s financial parameters.

Malen’s career has blown hot and cold - Analysis from German football correspondent Sebastian Stafford-Bloor

Malen’s Dortmund career has been a riddle. Despite more than three years at the club, a consensus has never really been reached on his value. And that’s not a measure of his talent, but his consistency. Malen’s form has always been volatile, with hot streaks melting away as quickly as they appeared.

Over the past year, when it became an open secret that he would prefer to continue his career elsewhere, the relationship between him and the Dortmund fans has been tricky. It’s a further complication to a career that has never really been one thing nor the other, rather a strange blend of the good and bad.

He’s talented and he’s shown that he can be a game-changer at the highest level, just never with enough regularity. The caveat there, though, is that the teams he has played for in Dortmund have often been flawed or in transition — he never had the privilege of working with a coach as permanent as Jurgen Klopp or as ideologically commanding as Thomas Tuchel — so a rebirth in the Midlands is hardly out of the question.

[Louzie0]

If Unai wants him, I do as well.
(Ooooh)

[Ian.]

Yep, me too. I’ve been missing Diaby and with Bailey out of sorts we really need some kind of wing wizard. Footballs not football without one.

[SoccerHQ]

I can't say I've been wowed by what I've seen of him in the past. My gut instinct is that he isn't as good as Diaby. However he scored 15 goals in the Bundesliga last season so for potentially 20m we can't turn our noses up at that especially as we badly need another option on the right.

A very unscientific observation, but I reckon that wide-ish attacking players who do pretty well in the Bundlesliga must be up there with the highest cross-over success rate to the Premier League.

He's the same age as Cunha for example and he's done better for Dortmund than Cunha did at either Leipzig or Hertha.

It interesting as I haven't watched Bundesliga weekly for five years now but my impression has always been its a league with ridiculously high lines so wide players should be staying onside and hitting decent numbers for goals and assists.

A game that always sticks in my mind was Augsburg being 3-1 up at home to Dortmund and still parking their defence on the halfway line so Dortmund pinged a few balls over the top for Sancho and Haaland to run through and they still won the game.

I was thinking that type of game scenario would never happen in the prem but of course know you have the bottom teams trying and failing to play out from the back and gifting goals when leading/drawing that way.

Given your point though, forward players should turn up and bomb here given the reduced amount of space to run into - but while there are those who haven't had the same success (Sancho? Werner? Haller? Podolski?), the list of players who have adapted really well is (I would guess) better than any other league.

Just off the top of my head - Aubameyang, Son, Firmino, Berbatov, Dzeko, Haaland, De Bruyne plus those mentioned above.

Werner and Sancho were the exact two I were thinking of. Huge number of assists in Bundesliga but less impact in tighter spaces here. Diaby was also hit and miss here although we rarely played him out wide and I think he'd have kicked on if he'd stayed.

The others listed are CFs or in De Bruyne's case someone who was moved into central midfield.

[SoccerHQ]

Perhaps time to start an individual thread about him?

This story popped up in the Heil the other day and in the last hour David Ornstein and Percy are both reporting our interest, apparently opening bid of 20m euros rejected but talks remain ongoing.

I can't say I've been wowed by what I've seen of him in the past. My gut instinct is that he isn't as good as Diaby. However he scored 15 goals in the Bundesliga last season so for potentially 20m we can't turn our noses up at that especially as we badly need another option on the right.

Think he was also at Arsenal in their youth team when Emery was there.

I hope he’s a lot better than Diaby.

Diaby wasn't hopeless. Still scored 10 goals across the competitions and 7-8 assists I think.

Started and finished well but was hopeless during the winter period. We should've played him far more out wide rather than inside forward but Bailey was great for months.

I think he'd have improved if he stayed but we couldn't really turn down the Saudi bid.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Perhaps time to start an individual thread about him?

This story popped up in the Heil the other day and in the last hour David Ornstein and Percy are both reporting our interest, apparently opening bid of 20m euros rejected but talks remain ongoing.

I can't say I've been wowed by what I've seen of him in the past. My gut instinct is that he isn't as good as Diaby. However he scored 15 goals in the Bundesliga last season so for potentially 20m we can't turn our noses up at that especially as we badly need another option on the right.

Think he was also at Arsenal in their youth team when Emery was there.

I hope he’s a lot better than Diaby.

If he’s as good as Diaby they’ll do for me.

[edgysatsuma89]

If he scores as many goals as Watkins and gets as many assists he’ll be an incredible signing.

I look forward to him being called a wanker. 🫠

[PeterWithe]

Aren't most wingers either various shades of inconsistent or priced well outside what we can pay?

Dont know owt about him but from the description he's what we desperately need.

[tomd2103]

Aren't most wingers either various shades of inconsistent or priced well outside what we can pay?

Dont know owt about him but from the description he's what we desperately need.

Got to admit that I don't know much about him at all, but watching the various highlight clips, he's playing in a more central role in all of them.

[SaddVillan]

 If we sign him, he can play for us in the UEFA ECL froom the round of 16 onwards and won't be cup-tied.

He's appeared in 5 games for Dortmund in the ECL this season. 2 goals scored

•46.01: As of the round of 16, a club may register a maximum of three new eligible players for the remaining matches in the current competition. Such registration must be completed by 2 February 2024 (24.00CET) at the latest. This deadline cannot be extended.
•46.02: Any or all of the players from the above quota of three may have been fielded for another club in the qualifying phase, play-offs or group stage of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League or UEFA Europa Conference League.

[Smithy]

If we sign him, he can play for us in the UEFA ECL froom the round of 16 onwards and won't be cup-tied.

He's appeared in 5 games for Dortmund in the ECL this season. 2 goals scored

•46.01: As of the round of 16, a club may register a maximum of three new eligible players for the remaining matches in the current competition. Such registration must be completed by 2 February 2024 (24.00CET) at the latest. This deadline cannot be extended.
•46.02: Any or all of the players from the above quota of three may have been fielded for another club in the qualifying phase, play-offs or group stage of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League or UEFA Europa Conference League.

Players aren't cup-tied in European competitions any more? Wow. That's quite a big change, and I suspect it's a move that will make January transfer windows a bit busier moving forward.

[Dave]

If we sign him, he can play for us in the UEFA ECL froom the round of 16 onwards and won't be cup-tied.

He's appeared in 5 games for Dortmund in the ECL this season. 2 goals scored

•46.01: As of the round of 16, a club may register a maximum of three new eligible players for the remaining matches in the current competition. Such registration must be completed by 2 February 2024 (24.00CET) at the latest. This deadline cannot be extended.
•46.02: Any or all of the players from the above quota of three may have been fielded for another club in the qualifying phase, play-offs or group stage of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League or UEFA Europa Conference League.

Players aren't cup-tied in European competitions any more? Wow. That's quite a big change, and I suspect it's a move that will make January transfer windows a bit busier moving forward.

It was removed from the 18/19 season. Guess we've just not had to pay attention to that fact until quite recently.

[Dave]

Werner and Sancho were the exact two I were thinking of. Huge number of assists in Bundesliga but less impact in tighter spaces here. Diaby was also hit and miss here although we rarely played him out wide and I think he'd have kicked on if he'd stayed.

The others listed are CFs or in De Bruyne's case someone who was moved into central midfield.

Not quite sure what your point is here.

Are you saying that the players I listed didn't adapt well to the Premier League? Or that there are other leagues with a better success rate than the Bundesliga for forwards (or probably any players, come to think of it) moving to the Premier League?

[ozzjim]

Seems to be a PSR half way house signing, but of pedigree, fits a lot of what we need without costing what others might. In today's market under £20m is very little and we are desperate for pace in behind to stretch sides. Diaby gave us a fear factor if nothing else at times, which saw us through a fair few games when sides pushed onto us when we were in the lead. If Malen can be be slightly better with decision making than Diaby, happy days. Philogene has been abysmally bad in pushing Bailey so competition there is a must.

[Demitri_C]

Agree ozz