Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was unsurprisingly delighted to have strengthened his attacking options with the signing of Moussa Diaby this week.
The 24-year-old arrives from Bayer Leverkusen in a deal said to be worth around €40m plus add-ons, as per the Athletic, with Villa officially announcing the transfer and confirming that the French international is in the USA with the squad already.
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As we prepare for the new campaign in which we’ll hope to compete on multiple fronts, the Villa boss needed to add quality competition and depth this summer to continue to improve the squad and ensure we become continuously better and increasingly competitive.
Having already confirmed the arrivals of Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres to bolster our midfield and defence respectively, the next piece of the jigsaw was always likely to be the attack, and Diaby now arrives looking to make a key impact in the final third after an impressive stint in Germany.
As with any signing, Emery and Villa will have meticulously analysed how good a fit Diaby will be and what he brings to the side to make us better, and so the Spanish tactician was pleased that the deal was done when asked about the transfer in Philadelphia on Saturday.
“I was very happy with the work we did last year, now this year we have to add some different players,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “For us, Moussa Diaby is one player we were following.
“He’s helping us, trying to improve our level of play in the attacking third, sometimes playing on the right, sometimes he’s playing as a No.10 and sometimes he’s playing as a left winger.
“We are really excited and are really happy with him. We have to build again our structure and Moussa is giving us another important step ahead.”
Emery also went into further detail not only about where he thinks Diaby could feature, but also what important characteristics he brings to the squad both on and off the pitch and when we’re likely to see him start training.
While our first pre-season friendly in the Premier League Summer Series against Newcastle Utd comes too early for him, it’s hoped we’ll get an early glimpse of what he’ll add to our side in the games against Fulham and Brentford that follow before we return home.
There was also a slight hint from Emery that he’s perhaps content with how his Villa squad is now looking. However, he left the door open for departures, while also noting that if there is a target that presents itself and it makes sense for us to strengthen, we seemingly won’t hesitate to add more.
“He is a winger, a striker and his best part is his capacity to attack, dribbling, running behind,” the Villa boss added. “He has experience in Europe, he’s young and I think the qualities he’s going to give us, playing in different positions as well, I think he’s going to give us more power. The idea is to start with us training on Monday, after the match tomorrow (against Newcastle).”
“Now we are happy. The squad has good balance. You have to be ready for (another) transfer and to add if it is good for us. We expect players to leave. We want a small family and to start strong, knowing better our structure. We know the big challenge.”
Much will depend on how many players leave in the coming weeks to see how many voids needs to be filled, but if Emery is content with the depth in his group and given our desire to only add new signings that significantly improve us, time will tell how many more arrive.
In Tielemans, Torres and Diaby though, we’ve been really smart in the transfer market thus far, and it will be fascinating to see how they settle in and influence our play and results moving forward.