After arriving as our marquee summer signing last year, Aston Villa forward Moussa Diaby experienced a positive, yet indifferent, debut campaign at the club.
The fanfare around his arrival coupled with the transfer fee involved, augmented by an impressive pre-season in which he looked a perfect fit for his role and in our team, all ensured that there was a great deal of expectation and excitement around his potential impact.
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Now, 10 goals and nine assists in 54 appearances across all competitions in his first season in England is a more than respectable return, and combined with the impacts across the squad around him, it was a collective effort that fuelled our memorable campaign this past year.
However, Diaby will know better than anyone about his potential, room for improvement and ability to make an even bigger impact moving forward, and that will be the challenge for the 24-year-old next season.
Having had a chance to adapt and settle both in the Villa squad and in English football, he’ll hope to use the experiences and learning from this past campaign to help him make individual improvements to his game while also becoming a more functional and effective piece in the bigger system for Emery.
Many players have needed time to adapt to the Premier League, and when it clicks, they can be a devastating individual producing at a high level on a consistent basis.
Further, we’ve also seen how Emery has improved and developed almost every player in this current Villa squad. Whether it was Ollie Watkins who was already a fundamental figure for us taking his game to the next level and being our prolific talisman up top, or Leon Bailey building confidence and belief in himself to be a decisive and pivotal presence for us.
With a full pre-season ahead this summer, it will be a crucial period for the Villa boss to work with his current players and any potential reinforcements to not only help them believe in their ability and make an impact as an individual, but also to perfect how they perform as part of the collective system.
Diaby is obviously a quality player, with his pace, movement, creativity and eye for goal all making him a stand-out option. However, it’s now about maximising those attributes and being more consistent, while fitting into the structure and style of play that Emery is developing to take his game from being very good to elite.
It’s a big challenge, especially with the stakes even higher next season with the introduction of Champions League football to our schedule, but it will also be a great opportunity for Diaby to embrace, and to show why he was signed last summer for what was believed to be a club-record fee of £51.9m, as per BBC Sport, by playing a leading role in Villa’s ascent to the top.