Aston Villa are reportedly set to step up their pursuit of Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham and could offer up to £40m to re-sign our former loanee.
The 23-year-old spent the 2018/19 campaign with us on a temporary basis and bagged 26 goals and three assists in 40 appearances as his goals helped fire us back into the Premier League.
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He returned to parent club Chelsea off the back of that and had shown signs of establishing himself at Stamford Bridge, but opportunities were hard to come by in the second half of last season following the appointment of Thomas Tuchel.
With competition for places and having seemingly fallen down the pecking order, Abraham’s future has been questioned, and now The Mirror report that Villa are ready to spend big to prise him back this summer.
It’s suggested that Abraham has been told that he can leave, and that Villa are willing to spend up to £40m to land his signature this summer with a bid potentially imminent as we look to try and secure our transfers as early as possible in the current window.
Time will tell if that’s how the situation develops, and whether or not Villa are successful in signing Abraham this summer, but ultimately such a move would surely lead to a reshuffle up front for Dean Smith.
The Villa boss will look to Ollie Watkins to continue to lead the line next season after an impressive debut campaign with us last year, while he has Wesley and Keinan Davis at his disposal too.
If Abraham were to return, could that see Watkins moved out into a wider role? Naturally it would push Wesley and Davis down the pecking order, and so would they seek an exit given the limited playing time?
It remains to be seen how the situation unfolds and whether or not Abraham is genuinely a target for Villa this summer, but he would certainly add more quality and goals in the final third, and if we want to crack the top six and qualify for Europe, that will be a huge boost for us to not have an over-reliance on Watkins to score our goals.