Journalist Dan Bardell has slammed Aston Villa for the way they spent the money made from the sale of Jack Grealish.
Over the past summer, the Villans sold their star player for £100m to Manchester City. As the club captain, he left big boots to fill and the club set about adapting to the loss by splashing the cash in the transfer market.
Indeed, they went out and signed attacking players such as Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings for big sums of money.
Have Aston Villa wasted the £100m Jack Grealish money?
Yes
No
However, while speaking on the 1874 Aston Villa podcast, Bardell pointed out that none of these are a natural fit to play in the Grealish role.
He explained: “Villa signed these players to replace Jack Grealish. But none of them play on the left, really. That just doesn’t make sense now.
“I look back at it and can’t believe I didn’t pick that out at the time. That just makes no sense at all.”
TIF Thoughts on Aston Villa and their transfers …
As a central striker, Ings was never expected to play that role. Despite that, he hasn’t bought much to the table, with just five goals to his name in his debut season. Buendia operates mainly on the right or down the middle, and he has also struggled to add a great deal with only two league goals and four assists since moving from Norwich City.
Bailey is able to play on the left wing, but he has been in and out of the team with injuries, and when he has played, it has often been on the right, anyway.
Considering Grealish netted six times and claimed 12 assists for the side last term, he was always going to be hard to replace. But when you look at how the money his sale raised was immediately spent, it’s easy to see why Bardell is so critical of Villa’s summer recruitment policy.
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