Leander Dendoncker to Aston Villa
According to reports, Wolves and Belgian international, Leander Dendoncker is set to sign for Aston Villa today on the transfer window deadline day, for a figure thought to be around the £12m/£13m mark.
At the start of the day, the Express and Star, the local newspaper that covers Wolves, was reporting that Everton, Newcastle, West Ham were interested parties for the 27-year-old midfielder. So, Villa’s move seems to have certainly caught people off guard.
Cast your mind back four to five years, and Manchester United were seriously interested in capturing Dendoncker services from Anderlecht, before they eventually settled on Nemanja Matic. Jose Mourinho’s interest seemed perked, after tracking him across a couple of transfer windows. At the time, Anderlecht were valuing him at between £22m to £27m.
While Leander Dendoncker has been in and out of the Wolves team this season and might not excite the Villa Twitterati, there’s a lot of logic to the signing that makes Dendoncker a decent fit for Villa. For the current predicament Villa are in, they need Premier League harden players, so Dendoncker’s 124 Premier League games, helps mitigate any risk.
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Two-for-the-of-one Signing
At six-foot-two, he adds much needed physical presence in the midfield and importantly at set pieces (at both ends). Such a presence, alongside Boubacar Kamara, would hopefully provide a more solid base to help the more attacking-minded midfielders to express themselves. With the Villa midfield in the past year being accused of being lightweight and surrendering games too easily (think Wolves, Leeds and Manchester City, last season), Dendoncker could be a shrewd acquisition in beefing it up from the get-go.
But his use case doesn’t end there, recently for the Belgian national team, Dendoncker tends to play on the right-hand side of a back three, as a more progressive centre-back. In light of the Diego Carlos injury, while Jan Bednarek is tipped to come in on loan from Southampton, having another recognised international centre-back, as cover, is a shrewd move.
In the future, if Villa’s system shifts and Villa get a top class central-midfielder in (or two), then Dendoncker along with Kamara, could play within a three at the back set-up too, allowing the likes of Matty Cash and Lucas Digne to play as more out-and-out wing-backs. You’d have players at the back, who are better in possession than your average centre-back, so it could be the next level of Villa’s evolution, as a team.
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.
Short-term, a solid practical move, while long-term still has potential to help progress Villa.
In other news, Aston Villa have confirmed that Tim Iroegbunam has joined Queens Park Rangers on a season-long loan.
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We do have a good squad. Problem is Gerrard is out of his depth here. Anyone can win the odd trophy in Scottish football and look like a hero.
He’s playing too many players out of form. Mcginn has been awful for over a year, Ramsey, Coutinho, Konza, Digne have not found any form, Ings and Watkins can’t play together and Martinez is starting to look dodgy lately.
It’s down to the manager and his team to sort it out but the truth is Gerrard isn’t a good enough manager at this level. Get him gone asap and get a manager in who actually has an idea of how to play a style or brand of football instead of banking on past success in a league that is sub standard to the prem.
Owners aren’t backing Gerrard with the low grade signings we are making. Unless they get Gallagher later on our transfer window reeks of 14th place again. Have sympathy for SG. We are still as weak as we were when Jack was sold. We needed to spend £200m then and another £200m this summer for Europe. Owners just want to milk the club hence season ticket rises, and plans to have a Villa Park that is open all hours like a shopping complex. Disappointing. I’d rather have a good squad than a new badge.