On the latest edition of his Here We Go podcast, Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano spent some time talking about Aston Villa and their recent unsuccessful attempt to sign 34-year-old free agent Mario Mandzukic.
Mandzukic is without a club at present, having most recently played for Al-Duhail, making seven appearances for them and scoring one goal before he left the club back in July when his contract was terminated. He’s managed to net 197 goals in his football career up until this point.
During this podcast, Romano discussed Villa’s attempt to sign the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League winner “three or four weeks ago” and he explained that the Croatian centre-forward knocked back the club’s approach, stating that Mandzukic “wants an important project”.
The journalist said: “Mandzukic, in my opinion, is an amazing player and look at players like Mandzukic, like [Alexandre] Pato, like [Mario] Balotelli – they are free agents – it was crazy some years ago to see these kinds of players as free agents. He was so close to joining Manchester United one year ago, Mario Mandzukic.
“He had a bid from [the] Premier League, it was like three or four weeks ago, it was from Aston Villa. They were trying to sign him as a free agent and Mario Mandzukic said no. He also turned down an opportunity to join Bologna here in Italy, so it’s up to him. He wants an important project. He will have a lot of bids, but at the moment, with Aston Villa, he said no.”
Would Mandzukic have been a good signing for Villa?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Fabrizio Romano had to say about Mario Mandzukic’s refusal to join Aston Villa…
Villa signed another centre-forward in the form of Ollie Watkins in September for £27.72m – a fee that set Villa’s new all-time transfer record.
The Villans also broke their transfer record in the summer of 2019 when they signed Brazilian striker Wesley Moraes for £22.5m and this is now the second-highest transfer fee the Premier League club has ever paid.
These two strikers are still in their squad, and 22-year-old Keinan Davis rounds off their current natural options in the centre-forward position, however, Wesley is yet to make an appearance this term as he is out of action due to a cruciate ligament rupture that he suffered in January, while Davis has failed to score in any of his 19 top-flight appearances.
As a result, perhaps you could argue that their centre-forward options are thin beyond Watkins, who is their top scorer for the 2020/21 campaign at present, and so it may be understandable why they allegedly approached Mandzukic.
With Romano suggesting that the former Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Juventus striker didn’t view Villa as an “important” enough project, though, perhaps missing out on the 34-year-old shouldn’t be seen as too big of a miss for Dean Smith’s side, as they may well be better off recruiting someone who is more excited about joining the club and actually wants to be there, so it will be interesting to see if Villa now go on to pursue alternative striking options.