Pervis Estupinan to Aston Villa: the transfer saga held up by Ruben Amorim
Pervis Estupinan to Aston Villa: AC Milan haven’t closed the door on selling Pervis Estupinan to Aston Villa. They haven’t exactly kicked it wide open either. Right now, everything is jammed in a total bottleneck. Ruben Amorim wants more time to look at the Ecuadorian left-back up close before he signs off on any deal. It leaves both clubs sitting on their hands, waiting for the green light.
Villa want him. The interest is real. A fee hovering around €15 million to €18 million is on the table, which isn’t loose change for a guy who, frankly, could barely get a kick at San Siro last term. But Amorim wants to see what he actually has in front of him on the training pitch first. You can’t blame him for that. Any new boss coming into a club would do the exact same thing.
What the raw numbers tell us about Estupinan
Estupinan managed just 19 Serie A outings during the 2025/26 season. One goal. One assist. Just 1,035 minutes played. Hardly stats to make your eyes pop. Add six bookings and a red card to the mix, and you get a clear picture of someone who struggled to get to grips with Italian football. Milan paid Brighton €17 million for him last July. Getting a similar fee now just means breaking even, cutting losses, basically.
Amorim doesn’t view this as a simple squad clearance job, though. He wants to run the rule over Estupinan himself. Put him through his paces. Once that evaluation is done, Milan will figure out if they take Villa’s cash or keep the full-back around for another crack at it. It is a slow process, sure, but it makes total sense from a manager’s perspective.
How the move fits Unai Emery and Villa
Unai Emery wants a left-back with proper top-flight mileage under his belt. Estupinan fits that bill nicely. He played 84 Premier League matches for Brighton and has plenty of caps for Ecuador. At 28, he is right in his physical prime. The pace is there. The willingness to overlap and bomb down the flank fits the exact profile Emery loves to deploy in his modern attacking setups.
That €15m to €18m price tag reflects one great detail. Estupinan has a contract running all the way to 2030 at San Siro. Four years left. Milan hold all the cards in these negotiations, and they know it. Whether Villa are happy to hit the top end of that valuation if Amorim decides the player is surplus to requirements is the big question, though neither side seems a million miles apart on money.
Scorzo’s take: Why this transfer deal is moving so slowly
This transfer is dragging solely because of Amorim. It isn’t a stalemate between the two boardrooms. The new Milan manager is simply doing his due diligence before sanctioning an exit. If Estupinan gets a run-out in pre-season and Amorim decides he still doesn’t suit his tactical setup, Villa need to get the chequebook out instantly. Picking up a proven Premier League full-back in his prime for €15 million is sharp business. They cannot afford to dilly-dally and end up in a mad panic when the deadline approaches.
