Telegraph journalist John Percy has said that the Lovre Kalinic deal to Aston Villa is done for a fee of £5.4million (€6m).
The Croatia international goalkeeper will join officially as soon as the January transfer window opens on January 1.
Percy added “First major signing for Dean Smith”.
Lovre Kalini? to #avfc is now a done deal. Fee of €6m agreed with Gent for the Croatia international goalkeeper. First major signing for Dean Smith
— John Percy (@JPercyTelegraph) December 20, 2018
OPINION
The 28-year-old goalkeeper should be a major upgrade for Aston Villa. It was reported that he might cost them as much as £7million but if Percy is correct, they’ve managed to negotiate themselves a good deal for the Croatia international. Kalinic has got 16 caps for his country but only played one game at the World Cup in the summer, against Iceland. He has heaps of experience with Hadjuk Split and Gent, where he moved in January 2017 for £2.7million. He made 130 appearances for Split and 79 for Gent and is expected to be the new Aston Villa number one. Current number one Orjan Nyland has come in for a massive amount of stick from Villa fans since his £2.7million move in the summer and it looks like Smith, despite backing him in public, has realised that he needed to upgrade him. After the financial wheels almost came off in the summer, Villa are back to spending big to try to get themselves out of the Championship.