Chelsea collect on sell-on clause as Bertrand Traoré joins Aston Villa from Lyon

Three years after leaving Chelsea for good, not-quite-so-young-anymore Bertrand Traoré is back in the Premier League, with his transfer to Aston Villa from Olympique Lyonnais made official today. The 25-year-old wing-forward has reportedly signed a four-year contract for a reported fee of around £17-20m.

Thanks to our sell-on clause, said to be 15 per cent on any net profit made by Lyon on the transfer, we get to pocket about a million or two from that.

Villa’s official announcement lacks any financial or contractual details — thus all the “reporteds” above — which is weird but somewhat fitting for a player whose murky status at Chelsea was a big reason why we landed in hot water with UEFA. In his teens, Traoré was a perpetual trialist with the Blues as we waited for him to turn 17 and official sign, but those machinations were looked upon unfavorably in the end and resulted, in part, in our transfer ban.

Once Traoré did sign, his Chelsea story became a lot more common unfortunately. After a couple seasons on loan at Vitesse, he burst onto the Chelsea first-team scene with 16 appearances in all competitions (including 10 in the Premier League) during the season that shall not be named — even if at times he had to settle for playing as a left back rather than a winger — but followed that up with a loan to Ajax and then a transfer to Lyon the summer after. He managed 33 goals in 125 appearances for Lyon, but apparently was deemed surplus to requirements.

At Villa, where former teammate John Terry will be one of his coaches, he will be expected to score even more often than that.

“I’m excited to be back (in England). I always wanted to come back to the Premier League.

“I had to follow my own way as well and gain some more experience. I think it is the right time to come back. I think I’m coming back as a better player, with more experience. And this is the right place for me to come back. It’s good.”

-Bertrand Traoré; source: Aston Villa FC

Good luck (except against us), Bertrand!