Having confirmed the departure of Moussa Diaby, Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has lost a key option in the final third, but it may well have paved the way for him to bring in his ideal solution.
Diaby arrived as our marquee signing last summer, and it was hoped that he would establish himself as a long-term fixture in the squad as we continued to build and improve under Emery.
READ MORE: Emery’s ideal marquee target touted as bit-part Villa ace seeks exit
It all started positively for the 25-year-old as he had an impressive impact in the early stages of the campaign, but as the season went on, it was clear that he was still struggling to reach his top form consistently, and perhaps that had a lot to do with the difficultly of adapting and adjusting to Emery’s tactical and positional demands.
Having often been deployed as a second striker behind Ollie Watkins, it was difficult to really establish where Diaby could be consistently threatening. With a natural desire to drift wide while we didn’t necessarily always maximise his pace and running in behind with the way we play, he struggled in a lot of games to make a decisive impact either in our general play or in front of goal.
Still, a return of 10 goals and nine assists in 54 appearances across all competitions was a decent return in his first year in England, and he was undoubtedly an important option for the Villa boss given his durability and reliability in being available, while he produced big moments that helped us secure fourth place in the Premier League table.
However, having confirmed his exit to join Al Ittihad in a transfer touted to be worth around €60m, Diaby won’t get the chance to build on last year and kick on in his second season, and whatever the reasons, it’s ultimately a deal that all parties concerned were happy to sign off on and move in different directions.
Villa have a lot of quality and competition in that department already, with the returning Emiliano Buendia being added to a group containing Morgan Rogers, Leon Bailey, Jacob Ramsey and Jaden Philogene, while the likes of John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Samuel Iling-Junior and Ross Barkley can all play in more advanced roles and areas if needed too.
In turn, we could arguably have enough without Diaby already to be able to compete across multiple competitions, and give Emery the opportunity to rotate and rest players without seeing the standard drop in our performances.
Nevertheless, speculation would suggest that the fee generated from Diaby’s sale could now fund another marquee Villa signing this summer, to add to the likes of Amadou Onana and Ian Maatsen, as Emery continues to assemble a squad capable of improving on last season and becoming a genuine competitive force both domestically and in Europe on a consistent basis.
As we’ve seen for the most part both with the players that have made the cut under the Basque coach from those that he inherited, to the new signings that have been added and have fitted into his system and way of playing, Emery has clear ideas and preferred profiles in positions all across the pitch that give him what he’s looking for as part of the collective performance.
Having opted to approve Diaby’s sale, albeit perhaps it was motivated by financial reasons too as a way of balancing our books given our heavy spending, it’s clear that the Villa boss believes that there are alternative options out there who can be more effective, adaptable and consistent for him in the final third, and so it’s another fascinating move which will hopefully result in us becoming a stronger group in the long run.