Aston Villa reportedly wanted to make a shock move for Greek striker Stefanos Athanasiadis during the summer transfer window.
When the name Stefanos Athanasiadis was linked with Aston Villa back in July, the Greek striker’s Wikipedia page had probably never been so popular.
After all, Athanasiadis was hardly a household name in the Midlands – nor anywhere in the UK for that matter. Though the Birmingham Mail reported that Villa were considering adding the 28-year-old to their attacking ranks in the summer – despite a less than impressive 2016/17 season at PAOK.
Athanasiadis found the net just five times in 33 games for the Greek side last season – although he did lift the domestic cup as captain. There was little reason to believe, then, that he would have represented much of an improvement on the underperforming Ross McCormack, Gabby Agbonlahor and Scott Hogan at Villa Park.
And even since those rumours emerged, Athanasiadis has failed to find his goalscoring touch. The 12-time international joined Israeli side Maccabi Haifa in the summer but, in five games, has not hit the back of the net on a single occasion.
Right player, wrong time?
Though if Villa had been linked with the 6ft 1ins striker in the summer of 2016 rather than 2017, their interest would have made much more sense.
Prior to his remarkable decline across the previous campaign, Athanasiadis netted 101 goals in 261 games for PAOK – and had only failed to hit double figures in one of his six seasons with the Thessaloniki-based outfit.
On current form, however, the phrase ‘lucky escape’ comes to mind. After all, Villa have endured enough misfiring strikers in recent years.
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