Qualifying for Europe used to be a goal that allowed the Premier League’s less wealthy clubs to hold onto their star players for another season or two. Entering this summer, Aston Villa were not an obvious exception. But the exits of Youri Tielemans and Morgan Rogers appear to have opened the floodgates, and Villa are now in the position of needing to rebuild half their squad in a couple of weeks, following nearly £300m of sales.
On Tuesday, reporting emerged that Villa have agreed to sell center back Ezri Konsa to Arsenal for £51m, and that they’re in talks to sell striker Ollie Watkins to Saudi club Al Hilal for somewhere in the range of £40m. They might not be the last high profile exits either.
Is it even possible for Villa to put together a quality side after this many late-window sales?
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Before the Watkins and Konsa news came down, our writers and podcast hosts voted Villa to finish 8th in the Premier League. If we held a re-vote today, they’d probably be bottom half. Villa have two weeks to fill all the holes in their team, and I’m not feeling great about their prospects for doing so.
But there is some good news. I like Villa’s signing of Matteo Ruggeri to replace the departed Lucas Digne. He wasn’t a great fit at Atlético Madrid, but certainly wasn’t bad, and was previously excellent for Atalanta. £17m is a good price for a young, athletic all-around left back.
Villa have also added a bit of squad depth on the right side, signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka from West Ham.
I think their signing of goalkeeper Zion Suzuki — presumably to replace Emi Martinez — makes a lot of sense. The reported £25m fee feels like a mild overpay for a guy who missed half the season with an injury, but he performed well when he was fit, and profiles as very similar to Martinez.
He’s good at claims, stays on his line, and doesn’t make bad positioning mistakes. He looks a lot like young Martinez.
With Juventus deciding to go for Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario instead, it’s not clear what Martinez’s market is. It’s possible that Villa just end up loaning him to get his wages off the books, given that they’re in season 2 of his transfer saga and — as the Suzuki signing suggests — probably quite sick of it. But they’ve signed a replacement that’s 10 years younger, and no longer have to worry about the GK position.
That’s all the good news. The bad news is that Villa absolutely need a striker and a center back, and there’s no media reporting out there suggesting that they’re close to either. It’s not impossible that they’ve managed to keep their big signings under wraps, but in the age of social media, it’s unlikely. Agents and players’ family members absolutely love yapping to reporters, and an increasing number of journofluencers love posting the stuff they hear. Villa are probably going to end up speedrunning a pair of transfers.
And thanks to Amadou Onana’s injury, Villa also feel they’re a central midfielder short of a solid squad, despite already signing two of those. They’re being linked to both Pape Sarr and Joao Palhinha, which makes me wonder which Tottenham team they watched last year that I didn’t.
Overall, I’m pretty negative on Villa’s prospects for advancing to the Round of 16 in the Champions League, or finishing top half in the Premier League. They’ve done enough in the market so far to avoid genuine disaster — and Brian Madjo looks like he might be a genuine contributor at age 17 — but it’s going to take a couple of genuinely monster signings at striker and center back to feel good about this team.
More transfer news and rumours
Manchester City have confirmed a pair of big money sales, with Rodri moving to Barcelona and Tijjani Reijnders joining Al Qadsiah, with the two sales fetching about £105m. Newcastle are also sniffing around Nico Gonzalez, who doesn’t appear to be in Enzo Maresca’s plans. They’ll need all that cash for replacements, since Ayyoub Bouaddi’s fee is expected to be in excess of £80m guaranteed, and Chelsea are reportedly asking £120m for Enzo Fernandes. At the end of this saga, Man City could be starting a midfield 3 of all new signings worth over £300m. What a wild window.
Chelsea apparently don’t think Pedro Neto fits well into Xabi Alonso’s system, and seem happy to sell if they get more than they paid for him. And a Saudi club are apparently once again ready to give Chelsea a nice bailout.
I like Como’s cheeky bid to buy low on Moise Kean, who I think would score a lot of goals with Nico Paz behind him. He finished way under his xG last year after being excellent in the previous season.
Inter Milan are closing in on Curtis Jones for £30m, and I think he’s going to be an excellent signing for them. Top Premier League clubs might have been scared off paying big for Jones in the era of physical monsters, but I think he’s going to be a star in Serie A.
Chelsea probably would have signed Diego Moreira from Strasbourg if they had any room for him, but they already have 10 other guys they need to get off their books. Instead he’s heading to AC Milan, where he’ll make a fantastic attacking wingback.
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