Aston Villa’s next January transfer could be a surprise swoop for a former Arsenal star

When the January transfer window opened, few expected Aston Villa to be among the more active teams. Their PSR position isn’t the best and they may have risked a points deduction had they not jumped through a few hoops last summer. Most pundits though things would be quiet. They may have been wrong.

Not only have Villa snapped up a pair of promising youngsters in the shape of Alysson and Brian Madjo and been linked with a string of strikers – most recently Tammy Abraham – but they also seem to be on the hunt for a new midfielder as well, with TalkSport among a number of media outlets to suggest that they are interested in striking a deal with Real Madrid for Dani Ceballos.

The 29-year-old, who has Premier League experience with Arsenal, has struggled for first-team minutes in Spain this season, but could he still help out as Villa push for another top four finish? And how likely is it that a deal takes place this winter?

Could Dani Ceballos still do a job for Aston Villa?

Ceballos has been in and out of the Real Madrid side since he returned to the Bernabeu at the end of his two seasons at Arsenal, a relatively regular fixture of the side at times but more often on the fringes – as was the case since the now-departed Xabi Alonso took charge last summer.

Ceballos has only started four league matches this season and hasn’t registered a single goal or assist in the Spanish top flight since the 2023/24 campaign. He has plenty of experience, but doesn’t necessarily jump off the page as a potential impact player for the remainder of what could well be a very close race for Champions League places.

Unai Emery, however, clearly has a high opinion of the midfielder. It was Emery who signed Ceballos for Arsenal in the first instance and although the Villa manager’s reign at the Emirates was cut short just a few months after Ceballos joined, it appears that he made a positive impression.

Ceballos is no longer viewed as a primarily attacking midfielder and has generally occupied a deeper, box-to-box role in recent years, particularly under Carlo Ancelotti – and it’s there that he has done his best work, and it’s presumably the case that Emery envisages Ceballos operating in a similar role. He could easily be a natural fit for Villa’s 4-2-3-1 system.

Ceballos is reliable on the defensive end of his duties in that position rather than exceptional, but his passing remains precise and incisive. He still has an outstanding pass completion rate for someone who plays as many long and dangerous balls as he does, and while it may be some time since he last had an assist to his name, he’s still involved in the build-up to a very healthy number of shooting chances. He has simply gone from being the midfielder who plays the final pass to the player who tees up the rest of the move.

If that’s what Emery believes Villa need in midfield to nudge them towards the top four, then a deal makes a lot of sense on paper. Such deep-lying playmakers are relatively rare, and while Ceballos may not quite have made the cut for Real Madrid this season, a club that values his specific qualities could surely make good use of him. There’s some room for him to be the 2025/26 answer to Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, even if he probably wouldn’t get on the scoresheet quite so often.

Will Aston Villa sign Ceballos this January?

According to TalkSport’s report, there has been speculation in Spain over Ceballos’ future following the appointment of Álvaro Arbeloa as head coach – and Ceballos was left on the bench for the former Liverpool full-back’s first game in charge, a shock Copa del Rey defeat to Albacete.

Villa, it seems, see Ceballos as an alternative to Conor Gallagher, who they had thought they were close to signing before Tottenham Hotspur swooped in at the eleventh hour to take him from under their noses.

Still, details of Villa’s interest are rather scarce. None of the reporting surrounding Villa’s interest in Ceballos mentions any details of the finances involved or the structure of such a deal, and at the time of writing none of the more reputable media outlets either in England or Spain have yet corroborated the claims.

It’s unclear whether Ceballos is a genuine target or whether the alleged interest is a figment of the gossip columnists’ imaginations. Certainly there is no evidence of advanced negotiations, even if it the rumour is eminently plausible on paper.

The negotiations for Gallagher did, at least, demonstrate that Villa’s PSR position is not as bad as first thought or is at least malleable enough to allow a respectable amount of spending to be done over the coming weeks, and it also showed us that midfield is among the priorities.

Ceballos is a player Emery has worked with before who is very likely available and offers a combination of quality and experience that not many midfielders on the market in January would be able to provide. Whether it’s a genuine rumour or simply more paper talk remains to be seen, but it certainly makes a lot of sense for Villa to be considering a bid if the price is right.