Hull City owner Acun Ilicali claims he is not worried that Aston Villa will re-sign Jaden Philogene this summer.
The England under-21 international has been in sensational form for the Tigers this season following his permanent move from Villa last summer, scoring eight goals and registering six assists in the Championship.
Philogene had a place in Unai Emery's Villa squad after impressing in pre-season, but asked to leave the club after the start of the campaign in search of regular game time.
Villa have first refusal on their former player and can buy him back at the end of the season for £15m if Hull are promoted. However, Ilicali says he's prepared to do whatever is required to keep the 22-year-old at the club if they are promoted this term.
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"We don't have any fear about Philogene getting bought back by Aston Villa," Ilicali told the Mirror. "The buy-back option is only available if we get promoted.
"If Jaden wants to play with us and he doesn't want to go to Villa, with the good relationship with the club we will ask for their permission to keep him. I believe that every player should be where they are happy. If Jaden's decision is to stay with Hull City if we go to the Premier League, then I'm confident Aston Villa will not make us disappointed."
"We took maybe one month to finish the business but as I said, we are such determined people, crazy people that run the club that we show this ambition to the players. Jaden is one of the players I talked to and I think I affected his decision. When I saw him getting loaned to different clubs, I felt like he needed to feel like he belonged to a family.
"Instead of loaning, we offered Aston Villa a buy-option to sell him to us, and in the end we thank the Villa family for giving us this young talent. It took us one month but with good success.
"What we do in the last part of the transfers is to give the players confidence that we aren't like every other club. The owner spends his time with the players giving full energy to the team."
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