Marcus Rashford’s loan move to Aston Villa has forced the club to leave £21million signing Donyell Malen out of their Champions League squad.
UEFA rules permit clubs to register only three winter signings for the knockout stages of the competition and Malen failed to make the cut, along with young defender Andres Garcia, as boss Unai Emery opted to add forward Marco Asensio and defender Axel Disasi along with Rashford.
But Emery hinted Malen, a Dutch international who played in last season’s Champions League Final for Borussia Dortmund, was extremely unhappy.
‘It was not easy, the conversation with him,’ said Emery. ‘It is not fair but the rules pushed us to take the decision and I explained to him why we took it.
‘Of course, he accepted but it is not easy for him to be with us now and not playing in Champions League.
‘Today he was training well and of course he is going to play hopefully for a long time here and hopefully in the Champions League for the next years.’
Marcus Rashford has been added to Aston Villa’s Champions League squad following his mid-season arrival on loan from Manchester United
But £21m January signing Donyell Malen will not be able to play for Villa in this season’s UCL
Villa manager Unai Emery was only able to add three new players to his UCL squad this week
Rashford’s arrival from Manchester United earlier this month ends a saga lasting nearly two months, since United boss Ruben Amorim froze him out.
The 27-year-old could make his debut against Tottenham in the FA Cup on Sunday.
Sending a message to all his new signings rather than Rashford alone, Emery added: ‘I want the players thinking 70 per cent football, 70 per cent in life every day.
‘Then there is family, days off but football (70 per cent of the time). This is the message always with the players and they are responding more or less in this direction.’