Pau Torres turned down a move to Tottenham Hotspur before joining Premier League rivals Aston Villa with Unai Emery explaining how the Midland giants got their mitts on a defender with the potential to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid.
Left-sided centre-halves are certainly all the rage these days, and Aston Villa have got themselves one of the best. A £31 million signing from Villarreal, former Yellow Submarines chief Unai Emery reunited with Pau Torres last summer and his faith in the silky Spain international has been rewarded.
Torres endured a difficult start to life in English football but has been a man transformed after a testing first few weeks. It is no coincidence that Villa, still in the Champions League places, have won only one of six games with Torres missing from their starting XI, the 27-year-old making a rather triumphant return in last weekend’s 2-1 victory at Fulham.
Aston Villa signed Spain star after Tottenham missed out
“Pau Torres is a very good player and his level is high,” Emery tells the Birmingham Mail. “He was progressing. Taking the decision to come here and play in the Premier League is more demanding, even in the duels. That is the first objective he has, in how he can improve, is try to be strong when he has to fight with really very good strikers.
“Not only with the ball but when he has to run back and be in contact with the striker’s body. Then it is about trying to adapt quickly in the best qualities he has, trying to adapt and play with the ball.
“He is doing it very well. And in (the) idea and style I am trying to create here, he is very important.”
According to reports in Spain, Tottenham Hotspur agreed a £46 million fee with Villarreal back in 2021. Torres himself would explain that, after being ‘informed of Tottenham’s interest’, he opted to stay put as his hometown club had a Champions League campaign under Emery to look forward to. Ironically, Torres would then thump home an equaliser in Villa’s 2-1 win in North London in November.
Fortunately, with Micky van de Ven proving to be one of this season’s most inspired acquisitions, Spurs are not missing a player of Torres’ qualities as much as they may otherwise have done.
Van de Ven eases Spurs frustrations
“He had offers (previously), from the Premier League. But he decided in that moment – we were playing in the Champions League with Villarreal – to stay there,” adds Emery, who’s side defeated Bayern Munich and Juventus on route to the semi-finals that season.
“He had offers from the top six in the Premier League.
“If I was the coach at Barcelona and Real Madrid I would want a player like him. He had some offers from top six teams before in the Premier League. He refused because he decided to stay in Spain.
“There were teams in Italy and Germany as well. I always wanted him because I think his potential I can help him improve more.”
Aston Villa host Nottingham Forest at 3pm today. Tottenham, meanwhile, will not take to the pitch again until March 2nd, when they face Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace.
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