Sources: Aston Villa to let Traore go as clearout plan revealed
Aston Villa will listen to offers for Bertrand Traore this summer after failing to offload him in January, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.
Steven Gerrard made it a priority to offload the club's underperforming wide attacking players in the recent window and that will continue into the next.
A Villa source has told Football Insider that the club will look to sell Traore, 26, two years after his £17million arrival from Lyon.
The Midlands giants could agree a permanent deal or loan him out for next season, especially if his match time continues to be limited.
Traore, who recently returned from Africa Cup of Nations duty with Burkina Faso, has suffered a hamstring injury in training at Bodymoor Heath.
As quoted by Birmingham Live last Friday (11 February), Steven Gerrard revealed: "We're going to lose Berto for a few weeks."
A separate thigh injury had previously helped restrict Traore to just 214 minutes in all competitions for Villa this season.
As revealed by Football Insider on 29 November, Traore was one of three Villa senior attackers earmarked for a January exit soon after Gerrard had assessed the squad following his appointment.
The other two, Anwar El Ghazi and Trezeguet, secured loan moves to Everton and Istanbul Basaksehir respectively.
But Traore ended up staying for the rest of the season, although that was partly due to negotiations being complicated by his involvement with Burkina Faso in the African Cup of Nations.
Traore scored one goal and supplied two assists as Burkina Faso reached the semi-final of the Cup of Nations.
He signed for Villa from Lyon in September 2020 and is under contract until 2024.