Aston Villa have recently revamped their recruitment system after narrowly avoiding relegation to the Championship on the final day of the Premier League season.
One individual Villa have decided to bring to the Midlands is Rob Mackenzie, who has previously been a part of the scouting team at Tottenham and Leicester City – now he’ll be head of recruitment in B6.
Mackenzie has a pretty strong track record and it’s one that should get the Villa Park faithful excited as they aim to get back into Europe after years and years of struggle.
During his days at Spurs, Mackenzie played a part in Toby Alderweireld and Heung-Min Son moving to the Premier League, as well as a certain title winner in Riyad Mahrez when he was at the King Power Stadium, as reported by The Express and Star.
During their years in England’s top-flight, Alderweireld and Son have proven to be two of the most underrated players in the league.
Whilst Mahrez has won the Premier League title with both the Foxes and at the Etihad Stadium with Pep Guardiola.
From those players, Alderweireld was perhaps more proven and known to English fans, especially given how he had performed at Southampton. But Spurs still took the punt and got ahead of others for his permanent signature.
Villa proved during the recently concluded campaign that a calming figure is needed at the back and if Mackenzie can potentially snap up the next Alderweireld from Europe or the lower leagues then it would do the club the world of good.
Added with that, if Mackenzie can pluck up little gems like Son and Mahrez for Dean Smith then he and the Villa supporters will be in for a treat.
The Midlands outfit spent over £100 million last summer because they needed to add depth to their pretty thin squad following promotion. That isn’t needed now.
Smith can now focus on certain areas and trying to find those quality players that can help take Villa to the next level.
Mackenzie clearly knows what he is doing and if he can search the market for valuable gems then the future may well look bright for those in Claret & Blue.
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