Despite the 21-year-old Italian’s impressive form since Bruce took charge of the club early last month, reports have suggested that the Villa boss is keen to sign a new goalkeeper in January.
Steve Bruce may only be six games into his reign as Aston Villa manager, but he reportedly already has some possible signings in mind for when the January transfer window opens.
As well as another striker, the 55-year-old is believed to have set his sights on bringing a new goalkeeper to the club over the winter to challenge incumbent starter Pierluigi Gollini, with Hull City backup Eldin Jakupovic and Sheffield Wednesday’s Keiren Westwood recently named as two potential targets [h/t Birmingham Mail].
The pair have both worked with Bruce before at Hull and Sunderland, respectively, while Jakupovic was also tutored by Villa goalkeeping coach Gary Walsh for over four-and-a-half years on Humberside until the ex-Manchester United stopper opted to follow his former teammate to B6 last week.
However, while more competition for places can obviously be a good thing, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to understand with each passing game why Bruce would want to potentially replace Gollini between the posts.
The 21-year-old Italian, who was on Manchester United’s books between 2012 and 2014, previously established himself as one of the top prospects in Serie A before joining Villa from Hellas Verona in the summer for a reported £4.1 million fee, and the fact that he subsequently revealed he had rebuffed interest from Juventus in order to return to England certainly spoke a lot for his ability.
His claret and blue career got off to an infamously shaky start after he committed high-profile errors against Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town in the opening month of the season to cost Roberto Di Matteo’s side a handful of points, but the former Under-21 international has since recovered remarkably well.
Having kept his place over Mark Bunn since Bruce took charge of Villa early last month, the highly-rated youngster has continued to reward his new manager with near-faultless performances over the last six matches, conceding just five goals in the process to help the club go unbeaten with three wins and three draws.
He has not been kept especially busy in some of those games, only needing to make 14 saves in total, but the way in which he has commanded his area and grown in confidence has been hugely encouraging.
There is obviously a reason why the former United trainee was touted as Italy’s potential successor to Gianluigi Buffon during his two seasons with Verona, and he finally seems to be showing signs up living up to that billing in the Championship after cutting the errors out of his game.
With Gollini now helping Villa rise up the table rather than costing them points, it begs the question why Bruce would apparently be prepared to spend as much as £6 million on Westwood? The recent long-term injury to Jed Steer has left Bunn as the club’s only other fit senior keeper, but the 32-year-old Republic of Ireland international would clearly not come to the West Midlands just to sit on the bench after proving himself as one of the division’s best shot-stoppers.
There is probably an argument to make that the claret and blues could do with a better backup option than Bunn, but to pay so much money on a player who will expect to start when there is already a big talent performing well in his position seems incredibly counterproductive – especially after he was signed for a fairly decent sum less than five months ago.
As most Villa fans will attest, there are simply far more needy areas of the squad where Tony Xia’s millions would be better invested.
Ultimately, Gollini’s current form and potential suggests that Villa’s goalkeeping future is in safe hands, and with Bunn a serviceable second-choice at the Championship level and the promising Matija Sarkic waiting in the wings, there is no desperate need to bring in depth either. If Juventus keep up their alleged interest in the Bologna native, there may come a point when Bruce eventually has to think about replacing him, but doing so in January would make little sense if the Italian giants are not planning a move for his signature any time soon.
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