Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that Geoffrey Kondogbia being a target for Aston Villa is a sign of the exciting times at the club.
Kondogbia has been linked with a move to Villa Park as Steven Gerrard seeks to upgrade his options in the middle of the park. Douglas Luiz is the man currently occupying the role next to John McGinn, but evidently, the English manager wants better options, as they are also linked with Yves Bissouma.
Kondogbia signing for Villa would certainly be a sign of intent from Gerrard, as the Atletico Madrid midfielder has played in nine Champions League games this term, so will add great experience of playing at the highest level to the squad.
With the news that Kondogbia has been linked with a move to Villa, Jones told GiveMeSport that he believes Gerrard is capable of improving this current squad.
He said: “Kondogbia’s an unbelievable player to be looking at. The promising thing for Aston Villa right now is that a year ago you wouldn’t think that you could get a player any better than Douglas Luiz, and now you’re thinking actually, ‘Yes, we can.’
“So I think that’s a sign of the times. There’s definitely life beyond this current team.”
Do you think Kondogbia will join Aston Villa?Yes
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TIF Thoughts on Dean Jones’ comments…
Kondogbia has been valued currently at £13.5m by Transfermarkt and has been impressive this season in terms of his individual stats. In La Liga, he has an average player rating of 7.03 – which is the fourth-highest in the whole squad – while he has the fourth-highest successful dribbles per game (1.2) and the most tackles per game (2.7), as per SofaScore.
If Gerrard can pull off the Kondogbia signing, it would be a great addition to the squad and may be the deciding factor in getting a Philippe Coutinho deal over the line on a permanent move to the club.
However, it all depends on the player’s ambitions, because even if he desires to play in the Premier League, he is currently at a side that are playing Champions League football, so would he want to drop out of that to a side that has no European football at all? Only time will tell.