CONFIRMED: Bolasie loan to Villa terminated, returns to Everton

UPDATE:

Bolasie has refuted claims that Villa ended his loan deal, and insists he wanted out by emailing the club before the midnight January 20th deadline hat he wanted to return to Everton (Mirror).

According to the Telegraph, Aston Villa have called time on Yannick Bolasie’s loan at the Birmingham club. The 29 year old has struggled to find game time and is on extraordinarily high wages for the Championship, and it no longer makes sense for manager Dean Smith to keep him around.

Bolasie hasn’t exactly set fire to Villa Park since his loan move this season, making 21 appearances and averaging only about forty five minutes a game for two goals and five assists.

Villa had taken on the player’s £70,000 a week wages when signed on by former manager Steve Bruce, but Smith has been unhappy with the output he’s gotten so far for that paycheck, a number that’s quite high by Championship standards. Additionally, the Midlands club have no interest in a permanent deal for the 29-year-old Democratic Republic of Congo international.

Bolasie had struggled for fitness with the Blues after picking up a cruciate ligament issue that saw him out for over a year. Even after his return, and despite being capable of the most sublime runs and dribbles, his output was severely lacking for what Everton needed and he ended up with two goals and four assists in 32 appearances.

His return to the the Toffees this week could add an interesting element to Marco Silva’s winger-heavy gameplan should the management choose to keep him or be unable to offload the player in the remaining ten days or so of the January transfer window.