Aston Villa have officially announced the signing of goalkeeper Joe Gauci from Adelaide Utd to bolster our depth between the posts.
The 23-year-old made 76 appearances for the A-League side prior to his move, while he’s earned two caps for Australia as he looks to have a bright future ahead of him.
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With both Viljami Sinisalo and Filip Marschall currently out on loan and lacking experience, coupled with Robin Olsen’s injury problems this season, ongoing concerns over his reliability and long-term future, it was an area of the Villa squad that seemingly needed attention this month.
As per the club’s statement, we’ve hopefully now addressed it as Gauci’s transfer has been confirmed, and he’ll hope to provide a long-term, solid option behind Emiliano Martinez moving forward.
According to the Athletic, the Australian international has signed a contract that will keep him with us until 2028, while Fabrizio Romano has reported that we’ve paid a €1.5m fee plus add-ons to prise him away from Adelaide.
Villa’s scouting and recruitment team will no doubt have done extensive analysis of Gauci to come to the conclusion that he’s an ideal option to add to Emery’s squad, and so it’s hoped that he ticks a lot of the important boxes already.
Naturally, we can expect improvement and development as he works with the Villa coaching staff, while training with the likes of Martinez should hopefully help him raise his level and become a better all-round goalkeeper over time.
However, with our preference to play out from the back, he’ll hopefully be comfortable and composed in possession to help with that, as well as being adept at sweeping up danger behind our high defensive line, in addition to the obvious shot-stopping ability that we’ve seen in his highlight videos.
With Olsen still with us until the end of the season at least, it remains to be seen if Gauci gets opportunities to impress and leapfrogs him in the pecking order, as we’ll hopefully still be involved in the FA Cup and Europa Conference League towards the latter stages of the campaign.
For now though, it’s another key area that has been strengthened with a young player looking to make an impact, and we’ll hopefully see him flourish into an important presence in the squad.
Villa note that Gauci is on international duty with Australia at the Asia Cup currently, and he will join up with his new teammates when the tournament concludes.
