Aston Villa fans are excited about the Premier League again. For the past few years it's looked like an inevitability that they'd slide on down in the Championship and absolutely no one would miss them. However, now Tim Sherwood's in charge and they're signing the kind of players that keep virtual Football Managers up at night.
The latest, and perhaps most intriguing, is the €12 million capture of Barcelona youngster Adama Traore who was confirmed as a Villa player today. Having seen him linked with the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal, Villa fans will no doubt be delighted with the capture and rightly so, he could turn into an excellent player. Or he could do next to nothing.
In reality, it's hard to know. The problem is, he's only played one game in La Liga. The suggestion from those in Spain is that he's talented but Luis Enrique was willing to let him leave for a reason. All in all, it's a bit of a gamble. You're going for potential over experience in a big way.
However, that's a little bit at odds with what Sherwood had to say about his transfer dealings yesterday.
Some of these foreign boys we’ve gone for are better than the English ones, they’ve played a lot more games at a very young age.
You look at the English boys, they’ve played five games and they cost the same amount as a guy who has played 200 games in Ligue 1. It doesn’t add up.
Don't get us wrong, he's 100% correct. We just probably wouldn't have said that the day before we spent €12 million on a 19 year old who's played one game in La Liga.
