The Good, Bad and Ugly of Aston Villa’s Summer Transfer Window
After another horror show against Crystal Palace, it was clear that Unai Emery’s squad needed reinforcements. But now the dust has settled, was the business good, bad or ugly?
The Good
The fact that Aston Villa were able to do any business was a good thing. As the players trudged off the pitch after another humbling from Palace, there was a real worry among fans that this would be the squad Emery attacked the rest of the season with.
Lacking any creativity, the only one of 92 league sides without a goal to their name, and with a right side of defence that currently is as much use as a concrete parachute, it’s safe to say it was the darkest moment of the Emery reign since the last time Villa played Palace.
However, with the deadline day done, came the light of three reinforcements in Victor Lindelöf, Jadon Sancho and Harvey Elliot.
While we will get to them in a moment, getting match-ready players of potential decent level in the door wasn’t just good; it was crucial to keeping the season alive even at this early stage.
Villan of the Week – Marco Bizot
Marco Bizot.
The Bad
While it’s commendable that Villa’s recruitment team got Premier League-ready reinforcements in the door, are they really what was needed?
The aforementioned right-hand side of defence has been indirectly at fault for Aston Villa’s recent woes one way or another.
Matty Cash’s wayward passing added Ezri Konsa as a red card victim against Newcastle. Konsa’s absence was then a factor in the Brentford defeat, and against Palace neither of the two was at the level required.
Cash lost his man, then gave the ball away blindly again. Konsa fluffed his clearance and lost his man for the third goal.
Despite the repeated issues, Villa have again neglected to sign a senior right-back to compete with Cash. While Victor Lindelöf can cover the position and could turn out to be a savvy move for Europa League games at centre-back, he’s not the specialist right-back Villa have needed since Ashley Young was discarded.
Then the issue of Jadon Sancho needs consideration.
All window, the twin excuses of PSR and UEFA SCR have been used as the reason why Aston Villa have been unable to land their targets.
Suddenly, on the last day of the window, they manage to find the funds to pay a reported £160,000 a week plus a loan fee for Sancho, a player who Chelsea paid a forfeit fee of £5 million to avoid signing.
While this is not a slight on the player, who clearly has talent, surely there was better value for money out there?
That’s more than three £50k per week players or the equivalent of two £80k per week players.
Harvey Elliott is the most interesting signing. He was well liked on Merseyside but could never dislodge Mo Salah, and despite the winner in the away leg against PSG, he was more often a Carabao Cup player.
A good pedigree, a tenacious and clever player, but again was he what was most needed? There’s still no direct competition or option for Ollie Watkins.
Last season when Watkins was firing blanks, there was Jhon Duran, then latterly Marcus Rashford. After the window, who is there? Evan Guessand? Donyel Malen?
Malen has failed to cement a place in the side and Guessand, despite a willing performance, looks incredibly raw at this point. They are not the same calibre of replacement as Duran or Rashford.
At least there are no issues in the goalkeeping department, right?
The Ugly
Who’s to blame for the Emi Martinez saga? Is it Martinez’s super-agent Jorge Mendes? Is it Aston Villa who needed a sale ? Or is it the world’s number one?
The truth is probably all of the above.
After the last-day failure to make the Champions League, everyone in the world knew that Aston Villa needed to make a big sale other than the Women’s team to themselves.
All summer, after his waterworks at Villa Park after the final home game of last season, it was expected that Martinez would be the sacrifice; this intensified after Boubacar Kamara signed a new deal, but the phone didn’t ring for the Villa goalkeeper.
Unai Emery consented to selling Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle United instead, and something seemed to break in the Villa squad.
Ramsey was clearly popular, willing to stay, and the local boy with a connection to the club, and selling him before Martinez had secured his move struck a nerve with the players off and on the pitch.
The ugly situation came to a head when Manchester United came back in for Martínez on the morning of the Palace game. Martínez was left out, and the rest of the team flopped. Tyrone Mings made a thinly veiled dig after the game, saying:
“And the players who want to be here, now’s the time to dig in, stay calm, and fight for the badge.”
Now the window is closed, and Emi Martínez remains for the time being.
As ugly as some of the fan reactions have been on social media, the facts are that he’s still a World-Class player who would have elevated Manchester United to another level.
So instead of weakening the team and strengthening a rival, Villa are now left with an unknown gamble moving forward.
Marco Bizot is a competent goalkeeper, but he’s not Emi Martínez, and as ugly as it may be for some Villa fans to forgive and forget, Aston Villa are a better side with the Argentine in goal.
UTV
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