Aston Villa have reportedly stepped up their interest in Juventus defender Dean Huijsen as we consider another reinforcement for our backline.
The 19-year-old has emerged as a top prospect having come through the youth ranks at Juventus, while he impressed on loan at Roma last season where he made 14 appearances, and registered two goals and an assist to go with his defensive duties.
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Capped at U21s level for Spain, Huijsen appears to have a bright future ahead of him for club and country, and particularly with the combination of his defensive qualities, height, reading of the game and his technical ability on the ball to bring it out from defence and build moves, he ticks a lot of the key boxes that Unai Emery would seemingly admire.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Villa are among the clubs who have stepped up their interest in the Juventus starlet in recent days, with Bournemouth, Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Monaco all said to be keen on signing him too.
In turn, if our interest is serious, we may well have to make a more formal approach in the coming days to not only move closer to reaching an agreement with Juventus, but also to fend off the competition and potentially land another important signing to improve and strengthen Emery’s squad.
Given our dealings with the Turin giants already this summer for moves involving Douglas Luiz, Enzo Barrenechea and Samuel Iling-Junior, it’s hoped that might favour us in potential negotiations with multiple clubs.
Villa currently have Ezri Konsa and Diego Carlos to play on the right side of the central defensive partnership, with Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings available on the left side to provide us with an important balance at the back.
The question that Emery, Monchi and our recruitment team will be asking though, is whether or not that’s enough quality and depth to compete on multiple fronts this season, and if there’s enough versatility in the group to provide cover if we have to deal with injuries and suspensions, while Mings is coming back from a serious, and lengthy, injury layoff.
It will be interesting to see if Villa do move for Huijsen, whether or not that’s with a view of strengthening and adding to what we already have, or if it might signal another exit to balance our spending and allow us to continue to improve elsewhere in the squad too.
Villa have been one of the most active clubs in the summer transfer window thus far, and the expectation is that there is still plenty more business to come as Emery continues to mould this squad into his own to suit his demands and ideas.
Mings is not on the USA preseason tour which does not bode well for his recovery and perhaps that’s why we’d need to have additional cover.