With Aston Villa being heavily linked with a move for Nicolo Zaniolo this week, the Italian international would certainly be an important addition to Unai Emery’s squad.
While the Villa boss perhaps had plans to strengthen our attacking options further anyway, the injury sustained by Emiliano Buendia this week has arguably made it more of a priority, with the Argentine playmaker expected to miss the majority, if not all, of this season with knee ligament damage.
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The signing of Moussa Diaby has boosted our quality in the final third and his partnership with Ollie Watkins will hopefully prove to be decisive, but we’ll now need more from the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Leon Bailey and Bertrand Traore, should they all remain at the club beyond the transfer deadline.
According to Fabrizio Romano though, Villa have now submitted an official bid to Galatasaray for Zaniolo which if accepted, would be on an initial loan move for €3m, while the agreement would include a €20m option to buy outright with €7m in add-ons.
In turn, a transfer could ultimately be worth €30m in total, and so it’s another significant investment for Villa in a 24-year-old who would become a fundamental part of Emery’s plans moving forward.
With 24 goals and 18 assists in 128 appearances for Roma as well as five goals and an assist in 12 outings for Galatasaray last season, Zaniolo also has experience at international level with 13 caps for Italy.
Beyond the numbers, the Italian international has great characteristics and qualities with his physical strength, height, technical ability, skill when taking on defenders and an eye for goal.
Those in turn could make a potential adaptation to the Premier League much easier for him, and he’ll add a different dynamic in the final third for Villa to complement the pace and movement that the likes of Watkins and Diaby would offer around him.
Further, Emery has consistently spoken about his ideas for our style of play, as he wants us to control tempo and possession with ball retention, and that was a key reason behind the moves for Pau Torres and Youri Tielemans this summer.
Zaniolo will offer similar attributes further up the pitch and certainly feels like an Emery signing with the ability to add real quality to our play something special when on the ball in dangerous areas, and particularly with our European objectives this season coupled with progression in the Premier League and cup competitions, he would be a welcome addition to help us try to move to the next level.
His injury history is rightly a concern for many as he has come through some serious setbacks in terms of knee injuries. However, Villa will undoubtedly do their due diligence on that to be confident in his availability moving forward, and with the resilience and grit that he would have developed through that adversity, he’s hopefully better for it with Villa possibly being the next chapter in his career.
