Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has shared his views on the Birmingham club’s recent transfer business.
This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-themed podcast 1874 to discuss Villa’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea at the weekend.
On the topic of Villa’s signings from the previous summer and winter transfer windows, Evans shared his thoughts.
He said: “I do feel sorry for the recruitment team to an extent, because there was only a certain amount of money that they were able to spend and they did have to get a hell of a lot of players in through the door. So they were averaging at 10, 11 million pounds a signing. In this day and age, in this modern transfer window, you don’t get a fantastic player for that, unfortunately – you have to really go and do some digging and unearth some talent.
“Unfortunately, Villa just haven’t managed to do that so well in the transfer window. But there are mitigating circumstances. I do feel sorry for them in some respects. I just look at some of the players that Dean Smith was interested in, Neal Maupay, Said Benrahma, both from Brentford, two players that Villa would have got, if they were prepared to pay the money for them.
“They just couldn’t pay that money because of the FFP situation hanging over them, they just couldn’t go over the top and spend all that money. The only way they could do that is by reducing the amount of players that they signed, going for quality over quantity, and then maybe mixing in a couple of the youngsters but if you get a couple of injuries like Villa have, then it’s going to leave them really short.
“Obviously, they went for Tammy Abraham, couldn’t afford him and he wanted to stay at Chelsea. They wanted to get Axel Tuanzebe back on loan or even sign him, couldn’t get him back from Manchester United. There were players they went for but they had to be prepared to put the money in to get them and unfortunately, that money just wasn’t available. They were not prepared to break the bank and it’s showing now in that team, unfortunately. There are a couple of players there that are standout players and that will play well in the Premier League and continue to play in the Premier League when Villa are relegated, but there’s some others that will drop down in value, unfortunately.”
Have you been impressed with Villa's signings this season?
Yes
No
This season has seen Villa spend £143.19 million on transfers from the previous summer and winter transfer windows (per Transfermarkt).
With Tom Heaton and Wesley both sustaining season-ending injuries at the start of January, this meant that Villa had to splash the cash in the winter transfer window with the signing of striker Mbwana Samatta and the loan deal for AC Milan goalkeeper Pepe Reina to replace the injured duo.
Villa also pulled in Danny Drinkwater on loan from Chelsea to fill in for John McGinn who fractured his ankle back in December.
TIF Thoughts…
Given that Villa are currently in the midst of a relegation battle, it could be said that spending that much money on players this season hasn’t been entirely successful.