This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
According to Sky Sports, Aston Villa are one of the two Premier League clubs considering a move for RB Leipzig striker Jean-Kevin Augustin as they look for a viable back up to club-record signing Wesley Moraes.
What’s the word?
Villa boss Dean Smith has spent over £130m on 12 new arrivals already this summer as he looks to bolster his squad ahead of their Premier League return.
The spending doesn’t look to be stopping there with the transfer window’s closure soon on the horizon.
Smith shattered the club’s transfer record to bring in striker Wesley for £22m but recent reports to Neal Maupay and Charlie Austin, on top of this latest link, suggest that another forward is wanted at Villa Park.
The club currently have Scott Hogan and Jonathan Kodjia as alternative options in that department.
Bordering on a panic buy
Augustin has been frozen out at the Bundesliga club and they are willing to sell the 22-year-old in order to recoup the £15m they paid for him back in 2017 when he joined from Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain.
Last season, the France under-21 international played just 17 games in the Bundesliga – of which only four were starts. He also only managed to score three goals with the lot coming in this first three appearances of the season.
The signing wreaks of a panic buy after the club missed out on reuniting ex-Brentford striker Neal Maupay with his former boss Smith – the Frenchman has gone to Premier League rivals Brighton and Hove Albion in a £20m deal.
That deal is only £5m more than the minimum amount Villa will have to pay Leipzig for Augustin, when in reality, the club should have forked out the extra few million to secure a player that their manager knows all too well.
Links to Augustin and Maupay provide hints into the sort of striker Smith wants to add with them both being different types to the 6 foot 3 Wesley, who is more of a target man of sorts because of his height.
Maupay outperformed Augustin in every aspect of his game. Despite being two inches smaller, he won more aerial duels (0.6 vs 0.1).
The former Brentford star also recorded more than four times the amount of shots per game at 3.3 and outscored him substantially with 25 league goals compared to his three.
Having missed out on the 22-year-old, a move for Augustin isn’t really necessary and borders on spending just for the sake of it – risky business after Fulham were relegated doing the same last summer.
They’ve already spent £130m this summer and have Kodjia who is probably a better back-up option having played in English conditions since 2015.