The Barnsley and Nottingham Forest stars are heavily linked with a January switch to Aston Villa.
If there was ever a club that epitomised how not to utilise the transfer market, it’s Aston Villa.
In the last decade, countless key men, from Ashley Young to James Milner via Gareth Barry and Christian Benteke, have departed for huge profits only for the incoming funds to be frittered away on some of the Premier League era’s most forgettable signings.
Jean Makoun, Karim El Ahmadi, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Nicklas Helenius, the list goes on.
To make matters worse, the odd forgotten flop has had the audacity to perform with distinction elsewhere. Carlos Sanchez has been in inspired form for Fiorentina while Jordan Veretout (below) has been linked with a sensational switch to Juventus on the back of an impressive loan at St Étienne, per Calciomercato.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that the arrival of owner Tony Xia in the summer coincided with an overhaul of the club’s transfer strategy. Out went the unproven, at times unknown foreign imports, in came players with English football experience.
And while the results have been mixed so far, for every Jonathan Kodjia there has been a Ross McCormack, Xia and manager Steve Bruce are more than aware that the shark-infested Championship waters are no place for a player who can’t dive in and swim straight away.
Therefore, Villa’s reported interest in the likes of Nottingham Forest captain Henri Lansbury, Barnsley playmaker Conor Hourihane, perennial lower-league loanee Sam Johnstone and prolific Championship goalscorer Jordan Rhodes represent a clear and sensible transfer strategy, per the Birmingham Mail.
Lansbury and Hourihane, in particular, appear to epitomise the new approach. Both captain their respective clubs and have been in exceptional form in the second tier this season, ensuring they should need no prolonged period of adaption if a move to the Midlands does indeed occur.
The same publication reports that Villa will indeed dip their toes into the foreign market again in the future but, for now, putting together a squad with a detailed knowledge of the Championship’s demands appears their best means of escape.
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