Will Aston Villa rue missed opportunities during the summer transfer window?

Aston Villa have had a positive start to the season after two wins from their first three games. Victory against West Ham on the opening day and a win away at Leicester on Saturday sees Villa sat in the European places in the table, despite the home defeat to Arsenal last weekend.

Although Villa has had a good start to the season, there is one thing that has already started to worry the fans and that is the injuries already picked up. Matty Cash picked up a hamstring injury in the defeat to Arsenal that will see him ruled out for the next few weeks and both Leon Bailey and Amadou Onana were forced to leave the pitch against Leicester through injury too.

Having missed out on the signings of Joao Felix and Lutsharel Geertruida in the summer, two players Villa pushed quite hard to sign, fans now worry that injuries are already starting to pile up for a squad that could be seen as having limited depth.

Former player has his say

Former Aston Villa winger Marc Albrighton, who made 102 appearances for his boyhood club between 2009 and 2014, has said that Villa might not have as good a season as last year due to not strengthening the squad.

Speaking on the 'No Tippy Tappy Football' podcast, Albrighton believes that Villa's inclusion in the Champions League as well as the fact that they have failed to sign another striker will result in a slightly more difficult campaign:

""I don't think that they have strengthened in terms of the squad. They have lost Luiz and replaced him with Onana from Everton, which is a bit like-for-like, but I don't think they have really strengthened. They probably could have done with another striker. It might be the Villa fan in me, but I think they will finish higher than eighth place. I totally agree that I don't think they'll have the season that they had last year, so I'd say they will finish about sixth.""

Why did Villa struggle to add players late in the window?

The last few days of the summer transfer window saw the departures of Alex Moreno to Nottingham Forest, Enzo Barrenechea to Valencia, Samuel Iling-Junior to Bologna, and Leander Dendoncker to Anderlecht (all on season-long loan deals). These departures were thought to be initially be a ploy to allow new players to arrive at Villa Park but that did not happen and Villa saw many of there apparent targets sign for new clubs elsewhere.

Villa's primary target in the final week of the transfer window was Feyenoord and Dutch defender Lutsharel Geertruida. Following the injury to Matty Cash and the fact Diego Carlos is out of favour at the club Villa were reportedly interested in signing the Dutchman who can play right-back or in the centre of defence but Villa was too slow in completing negotiations and RB Leipzig stormed in and signed the versatile defender for just €25 million.

Another player Villa were reportedly interested in signing, on loan, was Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah. Again however, Villa were too slow and Crystal Palace nipped in on deadline day to sign him. Missing out on these potential deals came weeks after Unai Emery's "dream target" (according to Fabrizio Romano) Joao Felix had rejected a move to Villa to sign for Chelsea.

So, why did Villa not complete any further deals? Well, following an interview with TalkSport in the middle of August, Aston Villa's Sporting Director Damian Vidagany had explained how difficult the club was finding it to make deals under the PSR restrictions.

Having already signed eight players in the opening weeks of the transfer window, and despite the number of outgoings, Villa would always struggle to capture their identified targets with the Premier League's financial rules proving too difficult to move past. Villa finished the transfer window with a total net spend of approximately £5 million, which for a club that has just qualified for the UEFA Champions League, is very minimal.

The concern now for Aston Villa is that if injuries were to begin to ramp up already, then the team would have to begin to rely on fringe players and the back-end of last season proved that it is difficult to produce results when you are in that position.

UTV