Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has shared some news on Villa striker Borja Baston.
This comes after Evans recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Villa-based podcast 1874 to discuss Villa’s 1-1 draw against Newcastle United.
On the topic of Baston and the possible reason why he didn’t come on as a substitute during the draw at St. James’ Park, Evans shared his thoughts on the striker and why he was signed to Villa in the first place.
He said: “He’s got a bit more experience, he’s been around the block. He’s played in more divisions, in the top flight in Spain; he’s played in the Premier League in England, he is going to offer more of a threat if he’s needed.
“He’s not the quality edition that that Villa needed. He was literally signed as a body, a very, very cheap option, somebody who’s on very low money who will be gone in the summer and was just literally signed as a body.
“That’s unfortunately where Villa are at. When your record signing gets injured, unfortunately, you have to take action and Villa have spent £140 million this season, they couldn’t go out and buy another striker, as much as they would have liked to. They bought (Mbwana) Ally Samatta who they really didn’t want to. They didn’t want to spend that type of money in January. Again, that was a buy because Wesley got injured.”
Baston signed for Villa in the previous January transfer window on a free transfer from Swansea City in an effort to replace Wesley, who suffered a serious injury at the beginning of January.
Since signing to the Birmingham-based club, Baston has only played 16 minutes of action for Villa, coming off the substitutes’ bench on two occasions.
The striker, who is valued at £2.88 million (as per Transfermarkt), has not made an appearance in any of Villa’s three Premier League matches since the league resumed.
Should Dean Smith start using Borja Baston in matches?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
It seems strange that Dean Smith hasn’t yet used Baston in any of Villa’s matches considering they need to score goals and win matches to avoid relegation during their remaining Premier League fixtures.