Aston Villa sign next Guesand in ‘horrible’ mistake

Aston Villa still have a chance to lift the Premier League title high this season.

Of course, that looks very unrealistic as Mikel Arteta’s formidable Arsenal continue to excel on home soil with wins, but Unai Emery’s Villans are just seven points off top of the table despite falling short of 10-man Brentford last time out.

With the addition of fresh ammunition to Villa’s side in Tammy Abraham, Emery and the team are well placed to maintain their grip on third place in the table and hope for even more after a fantastic £18.2m reunion was sealed in the just concluded transfer window.

Of course, not all transfers have gone well for the West Midlands giants in recent years, with Evan Guesand in particular a notable failure after moving to Crystal Palace in the final hours of the transfer window.

How Gesando failed at Villa

For every incredible acquisition, such as Morgan Rodgers joining Villa Park for a fee of around £15 million, the Premier League giants have also fallen victim to one or two of their mistakes in the transfer department.

Gessand certainly fits into this latter category, with a whopping £30 million spent on the Ivorian’s services last summer, which now looks like a reckless waste of cash.

There may have been some raised eyebrows when Villa first appointed the 22-year-old as manager, given that he only scored 21 goals in 109 appearances for his former club OGC Nice. But Emery has managed to get a lot out of several recruits over the years and Rodgers now has £100m of talent under his wing.

Unfortunately, he was unable to show his magic against Guesand, with the 19-time Ivory Coast international scoring just two goals in 21 appearances for Villa before Palace’s dramatic performance in the closing stages.

The Eagles will be hoping they can unearth a diamond in the rough of the unpolished 22-year-old, but surprisingly he is yet to achieve first-class form, with all of his efforts for Emery’s side ending in the Europa League.

However, sacking Guesand does not completely erase all of the Spaniard’s current failings, but another issue still plagues Emery.

Aston Villa’s next Guesando

Gessando was not the only notable departure from the attack during a hectic period, with Donyell Malen also making a last-gasp move to AS Roma.

In an alternative reality, Emery would have been happy to let Harvey Elliott go after his loan move to Villa Park didn’t work at all, a Gesand-style failure.

On the surface, acquiring Elliott on loan would have been seen as an outstanding signing that would give Villa further depth and quality, with the brand-new Villa No. 9 having won two Premier League titles with parent team Liverpool, just as the 22-year-old attacker first made a move from France to England a reality.

Along the way, Elliott managed to score 15 goals and provide 20 assists playing in every position for the Reds, with the young Englishman described by former manager Jurgen Klopp as a “fearless” talent and someone to work with. Unfortunately, like the recently departed Ivorian player, he did not fit in at Villa Park.

That’s despite the fact that Elliott has played just 13 minutes in the Premier League since the end of September, and his courage and guile from his midfield spot was at one point an “outrageous” sight, praised by scout Jacek Kulig.

Even when he conceded a goal against RB Salzburg in the Europa League, with zero key passes and zero shots on target, he did little to stake a claim for a more permanent starting spot, which is why he looks like a huge failure.

Guesand was given a chance to impress further under Emery before being pushed out and was set to start six Premier League games this season, but he only registered one assist while on loan at Palace.

Guesando at least has been given an exit route to revive his fading Premier League career, but Elliott’s nightmare at Villa hasn’t ended over the period, and based on the current dark saga, this deal is an even bigger waste of time and money than the move for Guesando.