Aston Villa have officially announced the signing of Alex Moreno from Real Betis, in a deal said to be worth around €13m.
The 29-year-old established himself as a key figure for the Spanish side during his three years at the club, making 122 appearances across all competitions while contributing six goals and 14 assists to go with his defensive work.
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As per the club’s official statement, we’ve now completed a swoop for the Spanish full-back as he becomes boss Unai Emery’s first signing since taking charge, and although the club have noted that it’s for an undisclosed fee, Fabrizio Romano has reported that the deal is said to be worth €13m.
With his defensive qualities combined with his energy and technical ability to get forward and provide an attacking threat, Moreno will be a valuable asset for Emery in both phases of the game on the left flank.
It remains to be seen what his arrival means for Lucas Digne and Ludwig Augustinsson, but given the stage of his career in which he is currently in, Moreno certainly hasn’t made the move to England to come and sit on the bench and provide depth.
Further, with Emery getting the backing of the club hierarchy to start bringing his own players in who perhaps suit his style and ideas better, there is likely to be a knock-on effect for those who face fresh competition.
Augustinsson sustained an injury in our FA Cup defeat to Stevenage at the weekend and so perhaps now faces a spell on the sidelines, while his loan move from Sevilla will come to an end in the summer.
For Digne, he now faces a battle to keep hold of that starting spot at left-back, and given Emery has had a couple of months to make his assessments and judgements on the squad, he’ll hopefully know exactly where we need to add more quality to improve and those impacted by that will need to respond positively to make his decision-making process harder.
That’s the challenge now for the current group, as if they can’t produce consistently – which we’ve seen over the past week against Wolves and Stevenage – Emery surely won’t hesitate in bringing in reinforcements that will ultimately be a better option for him to get the job done.
