Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has revealed how he has been left impressed with Andres Garcia’s progression, which in turn fuelled our move to sign him from Levante.
Villa confirmed the signing of the 21-year-old earlier this week, as he bolsters our options at right-back and hopefully provides serious competition for Matty Cash in that particular battle for a starting role.
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Having plucked him from the second tier of Spanish football, it’s clear that Monchi and our scouting department have been instrumental in identifying Garcia as a good fit for our system and style of play under Emery, but the Villa boss has revealed that the talented young Spaniard was already on his radar, and he’s been impressed with how quickly he has improved and developed his game.
“He is a right full-back, potential, young player. He was progressing so quick, and I knew him before. I know how he was doing, as a person as well,” he said at his pre-West Ham press conference, as per VillaTV. “We decided to sign him because we were thinking it was a good opportunity, just in this moment, a really good opportunity, how he is progressing so quick in his career.
“And of course, being a potential young player, we are not in a hurry with him.
“Hopefully, with Andrés García, we can progress quick in his adaptation, and how he can understand everything in the Premier League about the level we have.”
It’s hoped that proves to be the case now as Vila have invested a decent fee in Garcia, reportedly around €7m, and so there is evidently belief and faith that he’ll grasp this opportunity with both hands and prove to be an excellent piece of long-term business.
As noted by Emery, there will be an adaptation process and a settling-in period, but with Kosta Nedeljkovic expected to move out on loan for the remainder of the campaign, that should give Garcia a real run at displacing Cash between now and May, and with Villa still involved in three competitions, there are likely to be chances for him to gain valuable minutes to establish himself and stake a claim for a bigger role, provided he impresses and makes a positive impression in training.
Time will tell what the long-term picture looks like at right-back with Cash, Garcia and Nedeljkovic all in contention, but it was an area of the Villa squad that needed to be strengthened given our issues there over the past year or so with Ezri Konsa having to shift across to cover, but hopefully Garcia now proves to be another astute piece of business from the Villa management team.
