Teamwork makes the dream work

Aston Villa hit gold on “lethal” ace who’s value as a lot as Ronald Araujo

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The 2023/24 season has been an extremely profitable time for Aston Villa. Unai Emery’s facet achieved their purpose of Champions League qualification, securing fourth place forward of Tottenham Hotspur by two factors.

The premise for that was set by Aston Villa’s spectacular summer season switch window in 2023 and was spurred on with the addition of Morgan Rogers in January. The Villans spent £97m final summer season, based on Sky Sports activities, with 9 groups spending extra.

The signing of Youri Tielemans from Leicester Metropolis on a free switch was an astute piece of enterprise for Villa to conduct. The Belgian took his time to mattress in at Villa Park however quickly turned a key participant underneath Unai Emery.

Not solely that, they introduced Emery’s former defender at Villarreal, Pau Torres, into the membership from the Spanish outfit. The left-footed centre-back turned integral to Emery’s system at Villa and value an preliminary £33m.

The addition of Nicolo Zaniolo on mortgage from Galatasary was a wise piece of enterprise, as was the signing of Rogers from Middlesbrough in January, who took to the Premier League like a duck to water. He value the Villans as much as £16m.

Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers celebrates

Nevertheless, there was one different summer season signing, who might effectively have confirmed to be Villa’s finest in the summertime of 2023.

Moussa Diaby’s stats in 2023/24

The person in query right here is French winger Moussa Diaby. He joined Villa final July from Bayer Leverkusen, who received the Bundesliga in exceptional vogue this season, going invincible all marketing campaign.

Villa paid £51.9m to convey Diaby to Villa Park, a deal which smashed the club-record switch. The earlier club-record deal was that of Emiliano Budenia, who signed for Villa for a charge of £38m transfer from Norwich Metropolis in June 2021.

moussa-diaby-villa-ajax

Since transferring to England, Diaby has gone from energy to energy underneath Emery. The Frenchman scored ten targets and registered 9 assists in all competitions this season, with 14 of these 19 purpose involvements coming within the Premier League.

Certainly, Diaby reunited along with his former Leverkusen teammate Leon Bailey this summer season when he joined the Villans. The pair performed collectively 51 instances for the German facet, and have since prolonged that tally to eight4, having now mixed for 11 targets, together with three for Villa.

Diaby and Bailey joint-goal involvement

Membership

Video games

Targets

Leverkusen

51

8

Villa

33

3

Complete

84

11

Stats from Transfermarkt

That can little doubt have been a duo Villa followers had been excited to see in motion for his or her facet this season. It was a pair that was beforehand described by Soccer Expertise Scout Jacek Kulig as “lethal”, following their 51 mixed targets and assists in 2020/21.

Diaby’s market worth in 2024

Given his glorious kind this season, it could come as little shock that Diaby’s switch worth has risen tremendously. Actually, Diaby is now valued increased than any of his Villa teammates, with solely Douglas Luiz as excessive as him.

Certainly, the 24-year-old is valued at £68m based on CIES Soccer Observatory, greater than the likes of Ollie Watkins, who’s value £51m after a stellar season, and Bailey, who’s valued at £42.5m.

leon-bailey-moussa-diaby-aston-villa-everton-carabao-cup

Curiously, Diaby’s worth is identical as one among Villa’s main summer season targets, if the rumours are to be believed.

In accordance with experiences in Spain, Villa’s supervisor Emery, and Sporting Director Monchi had been in Spain just lately to observe Ronald Araujo of Barcelona.

This comes alongside the hearsay that “they had been within the Uruguayan footballer’s state of affairs and famous their need to current a proper switch proposal”, and now they’ve secured Champions League soccer, is a transfer they may make, based on the report.

This might be a pricey deal and would value tens of thousands and thousands of kilos. Araujo is valued at £68m by CIES, simply as Diaby is. It might effectively be a switch that shatters the switch file they set when shopping for the Frenchman final summer season if it goes by.

Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo. 

Regardless, the deal to signal Diaby has confirmed to be a profitable one. He has a formidable quantity of purpose involvements and has seen a spike in his switch worth which might provide good revenue to Villa ought to they hypothetically determine to promote him.

It’s nice enterprise from Emery and Monchi, and they are going to be hoping to construct upon that within the Champions League subsequent season.