Aston Villa agree first summer sale as right-back leaves in £3.5m deal

The 22-year-old right-back is due to undergo a medical later on Monday after the clubs reached agreement on a fee.

Kesler-Hayden, a product of Villa’s academy, has been in high demand after an impressive season on loan at Preston in the Championship.

Middlesbrough were heavily linked with a move but it is Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues who have won the race for the 2021 FA Youth Cup winner, agreeing a deal with Villa which is thought to include a sell-on clause.

Kesler-Hayden will leave having made just four substitute first-team appearances for Villa, all of them coming toward the end of the 2023-24 season.

He previously had loan spells at Swindon, MK Dons, Huddersfield and Plymouth.

Villa also remain in talks with Hull over the sale of another young star, forward Louie Barry.

While both sales will be banked as pure profit in Villa's accounts, owing to the pair having come through the club's academy, neither deal is vital to the club complying with the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules.

Villa are instead close to agreeing a deal to sell their women's team to remain under the league's spending limit.

Other fringe players will also be allowed to move on with midfielder Leander Dendoncker among those told he can find another club.

Villa remain in talks with Philippe Coutinho over the cancellation of his contract a year early, while promotion-winning defender Kortney Hause has formally left the club at the conclusion of his deal.

Hause, who has not played for two seasons due to injury, made his final appearance for Villa in January, 2022.