Alejandro Garnacho was undoubtedly the most controversial of Aston Villa’s summer signings.
Coming off the back of a disappointing season at Chelsea and an unsavoury exit from Manchester United before that, there was an understandable level of apprehension among Villa fans regarding not only Garnacho’s ability, but whether he would be a good cultural fit.
Following a disrupted preseason due to a facial injury, the 22-year-old is off to a slow start, having only played 31 minutes off the bench for Villa across three appearances. He did not feature at all in Tuesday’s Champions League victory over Club Brugge.
This has left many wondering whether another Harvey Elliott situation could play out.
Elliott joined last summer on loan with a conditional obligation to buy, based on a seemingly easily achievable number of appearances, only for Unai Emery to quickly decide he was not in the long-term plans.
That led to a difficult year for Elliott, who was rarely involved so as not to trigger the buy obligation. He played a total of 96 minutes in the first three league games after joining and then only 13 for the rest of the season.
Garnacho has also signed on loan with a conditional obligation, with the total package including the loan fee set to cost Villa around £42.5m if he signs permanently. It is natural to draw the comparison between the two situations, but could it really happen again?
There are reasons to believe so, not least because 19-year-old George Hemmings has impressed early in the campaign and is currently keeping Garnacho out of the starting 11.
Club captain John McGinn was full of praise for Hemmings after Tuesday night’s win, telling TNT Sports: “He was absolutely outstanding on the left wing, didn’t stop running, played like a real man and if he plays like that this season, no one’s taking that jersey off him”.
Even if that was not a pointed statement regarding Garnacho, it could be ominous for the Argentine’s chances of getting regular game time, especially once the likes of Ibrahim Mbaye and Johan Manzambi are up to speed, adding more options to Villa’s attack.
It is very early, and it is well established that Garnacho needs to build up his confidence again after a tough spell, but in his cameo appearances, he has not looked especially dynamic.
He is also not a clean fit in Emery’s team, which has not usually deployed a touchline-hugging left-winger. It is clear the signing was solely driven by the manager, who was happy to reshuffle the system to fit Garnacho in, but the Argentine will have to show he is worth accommodating.
On the flipside, the fact Emery was the one pushing to sign Garnacho, and had wanted him the previous summer, is what makes him different from Elliott, who was signed on deadline day in what looked like a panic move in hindsight.
Emery has shown he is happy to be patient with new players and bring them along slowly as they adapt to his methods. It is hard to believe he would give up on Garnacho so quickly after planting his flag in the ground by signing him.
The fact he did not feature against Brugge was probably due to the game state. As Villa looked to hold on for their first win of the season, bringing on a mercurial winger was probably not a priority. Garnacho did come on against Arsenal and Hull City as Villa searched for a goal.
Nobody has publicly disclosed the number of appearances Garnacho needs to hit to trigger the obligation, but it is believed to be easily achievable, and given the fact he has already made three appearances, Villa may be committed already, with no real chance of a repeat of the Elliott situation.
Elliott’s appearance target was also thought to be easy to hit though, and ultimately Villa do have to make a decision on whether to keep going down the path they are on with Garnacho or slam the brakes.
Of course they have seen much more of him than fans have in training, but they are working with limited information based on three short appearances, and the closer to the trigger point they get without Garnacho showing signs of improvement, the more they could start to get cold feet.
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