Aston Villa have officially announced that Ollie Watkins has signed a new, long-term contract with the club.
The 27-year-old’s previous agreement was set to expire in June 2025, and after much speculation that talks have been ongoing for some time now over a new deal, the delay for an official announcement had raised some concern.
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However, that is now over, as the club have confirmed that Watkins has put pen to paper on his new contract, and he becomes the latest core member of the squad to commit his long-term future to Villa.
While the club’s statement doesn’t offer much in the way of details, according to The Express and Star’s Matt Maher, it’s reportedly a five-year deal and so that will keep Watkins at Villa until 2028.
Watkins joined us from Brentford in September 2020, and he has since gone on to score 50 goals and provide 16 assists in 128 appearances for the club.
As he continues to impress and take his game to the next level under Unai Emery, it’s a real boost for us that he has committed his future, as the Villa boss will undoubtedly relish continuing to work with him, and improve him, to continue to lead the line so effectively for us.
Watkins will perhaps feel disappointed he hasn’t added more goals to his tally in the last three years as at times he has lacked a clinical edge to his play, but that remains a highly impressive goalscoring rate on top of all the other reasons as to why he’s so important for us.
With his work ethic in leading the line from a defensive perspective with his relentless energy and pressing to his pace and movement to stretch defences and play a pivotal role in how we unlock teams, he is an integral part of Emery’s side, and it’s hoped that there is so much more still to come.
It’s brilliant work from the club to follow on from the likes of Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and others signing long-term deals too, and we’ve hopefully got a nucleus in place now for the coming years to continue to build around and get stronger.