Entering the 2021-22 season, the shadow of losing Jack Grealish looms large over everything for Aston Villa. However, The writing was on the wall when they beat Arsenal to the signing of Argentinian wunderkind Emiliano Buendia, and lined up Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen.
It was a sure sign they had some money (Grealish actually broke the English transfer fee record) to burn this summer transfer window. You can do a lot with 100 million GBP sterling.
He’s Arrived
-Axel Tuanzebe (Manchester United) Loan
-Leon Bailey (Bayer Leverkusen)
–Emiliano Buendia (Norwich) £38.40M (RW)
-Ashley Young (Inter Milan) FREE (LB)
–Danny Ings (Southampton) £25M (CF)
He’s Departed
- Mbwama Samatta (Fenerbahce) £6M
- Tom Heaton (Manchester United) FREE (GK)
- Jack Grealish (Manchester City) £100M (LW)
- Ahmed El Mohamady (released)
- Neil Taylor (released)
- Ben Guy (released)
- Callum Rowe (released)
- Harrison Sohna (released)
- Michael Tait (released)
- Jake Walker (released)
Bottom Line
The signing of Danny Ings will consolidate them up front. I don’t see him replacing Ollie Watkins – who Dean Smith called the best pressing striker in the league, but it will be interesting to see if they can develop a working partnership up front.
Along with Emiliano Martinez and Tyrone Mings marshalling things at the back, I’m thinking Aston Villa will comfortably finish on the first page of the standings, which would be impressive for them considering that they parted ways with their captain and best player.
This year will see the club continue the slow build that their owners have been working on for some time now.
Aston Villa Predicted Finish Last Year – 11th Aston Villa Predicted Finish This Year – 9th
2021/22 Premier League Season Preview Series
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