When Norwich City confirmed the shock signing of Milot Rashica last year, snapping up the Kosovo international following Werder Bremen’s relegation from the Bundesliga, the reaction from Villa Park was one of regret.
“I wanted him so badly at Aston Villa,” one dismayed supporter wrote on Twitter. “But I guarantee he’s going to be great for (Norwich) and for under £10 million as well. Absolutely great transfer.”
12 months on, the feeling around Rashica has changed. Less a missed opportunity, more a lucky escape. A bullet dodged, Neo-style.
For the second season in a row, Rashica’s campaign ended in relegation. Though he must shoulder his share of the blame after Norwich’s return to the Premier League turned out to be little more than a flying visit.
Across 30 games, the winger produced one goal and two assists during his debut season at Carrow Road. Of course, things might have panned out very differently if Rashica had joined a vastly superior Aston Villa side instead, but the club’s decision to walk away from the former Vitesse Arnhem speedster after a summer of relentless speculation now feels like little more than a close shave.
Milot Rashica relegated with Norwich City
“There are several interested parties, and Aston Villa are one of them,” Werder’s sporting director Frank Baumann said in September 2020.
According to the Birmingham Mail, Aston Villa even triggered the £20 million release clause in Rashica’s contract during the final few weeks of the 2020 transfer window.
That was, however, until the one-time Liverpool target priced himself out of a move to the Midlands by requesting a £75,000-a-week contract.
With Aston Villa sitting comfortably in mid-table, as Norwich are dumped into the Championship like an early-noughties kids’ show contestant into a vat of toxic-tinged gunge, it is Rashica – rather than Villa – who may be wishing the clock could be turned back to September 2020.
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“I’m disappointed for a lot of people,” sighed Dean Smith, the manager in charge of Villa when they were eyeing up Rashica, after Norwich’s relegation was confirmed.
“Ultimately, we haven’t been good enough.”
That ‘we’ most definitely includes a man who arrived for £9 million, promising much but delivering little.
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