Aston Villa have reportedly reached an agreement to sign Adelaide Utd goalkeeper Joe Gauci as we look to add depth in that department.
The 23-year-old has made 76 appearances for the A-League outfit, while he has been capped twice at senior level for Australia.
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According to The Athletic, the shot-stopper is now set to join Villa after an agreement was reached with Adelaide Utd, and he’s expected to complete his medical on Wednesday and sign a contract that will run until 2028.
While Emiliano Martinez is of course first-choice for Unai Emery between the posts, we do lack high-level competition and depth behind the Argentine international.
Robin Olsen is our primary back-up option, but despite the 34-year-old’s wealth of experience, he has struggled to entirely convince when filling in, and so that has been an ongoing concern for us.
Further, with both Viljami Sinisalo and Filip Marschall currently out on loan gaining experience and developing their respective games as they’re still young, we needed to bolster the goalkeeper department with another option, and it looks as though Gauci will provide the solution.
Villa will undoubtedly have done extensive scouting and analysis on the Australian international to determine whether or not he’s a good fit for us, as we’ve seen that Emery wants Martinez to not only command his box and make key saves, but he has an important role in our build-up play out from the back and sweeping up behind a high defensive line.
The expectation is that Villa feel Gauci can do those things effectively too, and he’ll no doubt improve and benefit from training alongside the World Cup winner to hopefully emerge as a solid, reliable back-up option when needed to come in.
Should the deal go through as touted, he could become our third signing of the transfer window, with a deal already completed for Kosta Nedeljkovic from Red Star Belgrade as he’ll join us in the summer, while Morgan Rogers is also expected to arrive on Wednesday from Middlesbrough.