£4m Jota deal could be Aston Villa’s best business this summer

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Aston Villa seemed to catch many by surprise by agreeing to sign Jota ahead of their return to the Premier League.

With the Aston Villa fans heading into the summer dreaming of seeing some of the club’s loan signings return permanently, many were caught off-guard when the club announced that Jota was their first signing of the window ahead of their return to the Premier League.

The Spaniard was signed off the back of a tough spell at rivals Birmingham City. He had scored just eight league goals for the Blues across two seasons. And while he provided 11 assists in the second tier last term, some may have questioned whether he would be able to make an impact in the top flight.

The Sun reported that the Villans paid £4 million for the playmaker, with Gary Gardner moving in the opposite direction having been on loan at St Andrew’s last term. Nevertheless, some deemed the move to be something of a gamble.

But after just a handful of appearances, it is becoming clear why it would be extremely unfair to Dean Smith to suggest that he took a risk on the 28-year-old.

Jota whetted the appetite with how he linked up with his new teammates in pre-season. And after two substitute appearances in the opening weeks of the campaign, he was handed his first start on Friday night as Everton visited Villa Park.

Within 22 minutes, he had already proved why he could be considered Villa’s shrewdest signing of the summer as he produced a delicious pass that cut through the Toffees defence and set Wesley up for his first goal since his own summer move.

Whoscored.com showed that no Villa player made more key passes than the wide-man, while no player on either side completed more successful dribbles.

Some of Villa’s other summer signings may make a bigger contribution during their time with the club, but they are surely going to have to go some way to prove better value for money than Jota.

And with Smith knowing exactly what he is capable of after their time together at Brentford, there is every reason to believe that the Villa boss knew exactly what he could be capable of doing at English football’s top table.

It may have looked like a gamble, but it would be a disservice to Smith to suggest that he was rolling the dice by signing Jota. It is now not at all difficult to believe that there was a reason why Jota was his first signing of the summer, and that is because Smith knew how inspired an addition he would be.