Aston Villa

Aston Villa: Harry Batters discusses Julian Alvarez

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Aston Villa YouTuber Harry Batters has given his views on the sort of impact that Argentinian forward Julian Alvarez could have on the club should he sign.

The 21-year-old, who has just come off the back of winning the Copa America with his national side, has reportedly been a target for Dean Smith’s side all summer, with a more recent report from Argentinian outlet TNT Sports claiming that the player’s agent is in England right now negotiating a potential deal.

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It would be the second Argentinian that the club will have signed this summer if they can get the deal to go through, following their capture of Norwich City’s Emiliano Buendía, and speaking on the latest episode of his show, Batters discussed the impact that signing him could have and the value that they could get out of his signing:

“I personally think we’re bringing him in as a backup player who can offer depth all across the front three, but also someone that we can bring off the bench to offer an impact. Like I said, he’s got eight goal contributions in 14 games, most of them are off the bench, he can clearly be used as an impact sub, someone who can come off the bench, create stuff.

“He’s clearly good to use an impact sub and he’s not gonna cost us more than £15m, I don’t think. I think it’ll be around £10m to £15m, and you can’t go wrong with that sort of fee for a 21-year-old who’s got eight goal contributions in 14 games.”

TIF Thoughts on Harry Batters’ comments about Julian Alvarez…

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In this 2019/20 season quiz, do you remember who scored Villa's first PL goal of the season?

Whilst Batters might be comfortable with him being an impact player off the bench, whether or not Alvarez wants to do the same is a different matter.

It would just seem a bit weird to go from being on the bench at one club to moving to the bench of another, especially one that’s on the other side of the world away from your homeland. Surely if a player were to make a move like that, there would need to be some form of progression at the same time – it’s not like he’s one of these ageing goalkeepers that are there simply to make up the numbers.

He’s 21 with his whole future ahead of him and currently on the fringes of the Argentina squad, where you would imagine he’d want more playing time in order to become a regular there as well.

So whilst Batters might be correct in saying he might flourish in his role as an impact sub, and the fee in the grand scheme of things isn’t too extravagant for what he could provide, it might be a little insulting for Villa to force him into a similar role at Villa Park if they were to sign him.

In other news: “Have shown an interest” – Journalist drops AVFC transfer claim on 21 y/o with “lot of quality”

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Freelance sports journalist & broadcaster.