Man United’s head of academy Nicky Butt has cooled talk of a permanent move to Aston Villa for Axel Tuanzebe.
The youngster has had a great campaign for Villa and he has been a key part of the side that went on a superb run to earn a place in the upcoming play-offs.
Tuanzebe has made 27 appearances this season and he would have featured even more but he broke his foot in December and was ruled out for three months.
Villa were hoping to make the move permanent this summer, but this now seems unlikely. Nicky Butt spoke with Man United’s official website about the 20-year-old’s future and he has been very impressed with him this season.
Axel is a very talented boy, who I do believe is going to have a good career at Manchester United. There is no point sitting around not playing football and he’s gone to Aston Villa, who are a big, big club.
He got injured but is back playing well again now and now he has a few big play-off games coming up.
Tuanzebe and Villa have big games still to come. Their Championship play-off semi-final against city rivals West Brom gets underway on Saturday.
At the very least Villa will want to keep Tuanzebe at the club next season on loan, and their chances of doing so will be made much greater if they get promoted.
Man United will likely want the defender to gain some Premier League experience next season to see if he can cut it at the top level after he has improved so much in the Championship.
