Aston Villa have been paired with an interest in two potential attacking reinforcements as Unai Emery looks to fill the void left behind by Morgan Rogers.
A verbal agreement is said to have been reached with Chelsea over the sale of Rogers in a deal worth £117m, and although Johan Manzambi’s arrival was confirmed this week as a possible direct replacement for the 23-year-old, the expectation is that we’ll continue to reinvest and bolster our attack ahead of the new season.
READ MORE: Rogers departs as Villa’s rebuild gathers pace
Various names have been touted for some time now and so it remains to be seen who emerges as the priority target for Emery, but it appears two in particular could be at the top of the list for the time being.
Subscribe to Talk Villa+ below for ad-free weekly newsletters, exclusive articles and much more sent directly to you. The TalkVilla podcast is also now available, have a listen, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. UTV!
According to Fabrizio Romano, Nicolas Jackson was discussed between Villa and Chelsea during talks over Rogers, and that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given he was linked with us last summer and Emery knows him well from their time working together at Villarreal.
Jackson, 25, spent last season on loan at Bayern Munich where he scored 11 goals and provided four assists in 34 appearances for the Bundesliga giants, while he has 30 goals and 12 assists in 81 outings for Chelsea.
Time will tell if he is indeed a preferred option again this summer and whether or not a deal can be agreed between the two clubs this time round, but it has also been suggested that Villa will need to be wary of the fact that if a deal goes through within a certain timeframe, it might be classed as a swap deal with Rogers going in the opposite direction and that could impact our position with UEFA.
Meanwhile, Romano has also reported that Villa are interested in West Ham United winger Crysencio Summerville, but Roma are said to be in pole position currently having already had a €40m+ offer rejected. It’s unclear if there is a window of opportunity for Villa to swoop in and beat them to the signing, but if our interest is serious, it will surely be crucial to step up our pursuit sooner rather than later and formalise our interest into an offer of our own.
The 24-year-old joined the Hammers from Leeds United in 2024, and after he contributed 25 goals and 13 assists in 89 appearances during his time at Elland Road, he featured 56 times for West Ham, scoring eight goals and providing seven assists as they were unable to avoid relegation from the Premier League last season.
While the Dutch international is a talented player and has room for further development, it’s questionable as to whether he is the best option on the market that we could bring in this summer.
The common trend through all of this though is that Villa are seemingly now focusing on a dynamic wide player with Manzambi likely to play through the middle, and so it will be fascinating to see who emerges as the favourite to add more quality to our attacking line-up.
Very disappointing to lose the heart of our team, seems we’re just a selling club, but all we can do is hope that Emery can find quality replacements Monzambi is a good signing but we obviously need a lot more, big season looming and big players needed. Not sure about Relying on Watkins he spends too much time lying on the ground at the slightest touch.