Femi Azeez: Key reason Aston Villa missed out on Super Eagles star

Super Eagles winger Femi Azeez was on Aston Villa’s shortlist before completing his deadline-day move to Brighton & Hove Albion for a package worth up to £15 million, Afrik-Foot reports.

Football Insider revealed that Villa had a look at the 25-year-old earlier in the summer window, with former senior Villa scout and Millwall legend Bryan King confirming the interest from Unai Emery’s side before the winger’s move to the south coast was rubber-stamped.

Azeez arrives at the Amex on a four-year contract running until June 2030 after a Championship season in which he scored 11 goals, provided seven assists and earned a place in the PFA Team of the Year.

Key reason Aston Villa missed out on Femi Azeez

The single factor that took Villa out of the Azeez race was the hamstring injury he picked up in Millwall’s opening Championship fixture of the 2026/27 season against Bristol City.

The former Reading winger played just 29 minutes at Ashton Gate before he clutched his thigh and had to be replaced by Kyrell Lisbie. Speaking to Football Insider, King explained:

“I know from my sources that Villa had a look at this boy Azeez earlier, but of course he’s been injured. He got injured in the first game.”

The timing could not have been worse. Villa’s initial scouting work on Azeez came before the injury, when he was fully fit and coming off a Championship season that had put him firmly on the Premier League radar.

The moment he limped off in the season opener, the direction changed for a Villa recruitment team that needed a right-sided winger available immediately for the opening weeks of the Emery era’s new Champions League campaign, not one that would need to be nursed back to full fitness, especially after their opening league game loss to Brighton, the team Azeez eventually joined.

The Seagulls, by contrast, were happy to absorb the short-term risk. Fabian Hürzeler’s side had already been rejected on three separate bids by Millwall through August, had built the deal into their transfer planning across multiple weeks, and were content to sign a player they expected to be available straight after his return from injury.

For a club with Yankuba Minteh, Ibrahim Osman and fellow Nigerian Zadok Yohanna already competing on the right flank, waiting for Azeez to get up to speed was never going to be a deal-breaker.

The £47 million pivot to Ibrahim Mbaye

The bigger story of Villa’s window is not what they missed, but what they moved on to.

Rather than push through the Azeez injury and take the risk, Emery’s side pivoted their right-wing budget in an entirely different direction, completing a £47 million deal for Ibrahim Mbaye to lead the right side of their attack.

That decision effectively closed the door on Azeez. Once Villa’s marquee attacking spend had been allocated to Mbaye at more than three times Brighton’s outlay on the Millwall winger, the Nigerian was no longer a target Villa could realistically re-engage.

For Villa, the trade-off is a straightforward one on paper. They have replaced Azeez with a £47 million alternative in Mbaye.

For Azeez, the alternative is not a bad landing spot at all. Brighton’s four-year contract, their track record with young attackers and their willingness to be patient with an injury Villa were not prepared to wait out mean the Super Eagles winger arrives at a club whose plans were built specifically around him.