Aston Villa’s start to the 2024/25 season has been something of a mixed bag for the Midlands club so far. They won their first game, securing all three points in a tough away trip to West Ham United, thanks to goals from Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran. However, their first home game of the campaign ended in a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal.
The Villans have a huge season ahead, with a return to the Champions League, and have already made eight signings as they look to improve their squad.
Aston Villa were targeting Serie A striker
The player in question here is AS Roma and England international striker Tammy Abraham.
According to a report from Football Insider, the Villans had been plotting ‘a formal move' to hijack Abraham’s proposed switch to AC Milan, if Jhon Duran departed Villa Park, suggesting that an offer could arrive for the Serie A-based marksman.
The Midlands club ‘believe the striker will choose them’ if they manage to agree terms for a deal with Roma to sign their former loanee, who is deemed to be at the top of their list to replace Duran.
Sadly, any such move will now not come to fruition with the player agreeing a move to Roma in the final hours before deadline day.
Why Abraham would have been a good signing
Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, he missed much of last season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which he picked up at the start of the campaign. He did make it back to full fitness for the final few games of the season, playing eight Serie A games and getting a goal and an assist.
The season prior to his injury saw the England international in fairly good form. In 2022/23, Abraham managed to find the back of the net on eight occasions in 38 Serie A games, also registering four assists in that time.
As has been previously alluded to, the Roma centre-forward has had a spell at Villa Park before, on loan from Chelsea in 2018/19 when they were in the Championship. It is fair to say the striker was superb, playing 40 games, scoring 26 times and registering three assists. There are certainly good memories of the attacker for Villa fans during his first spell at the club.
Had he returned to the club this summer on a permanent deal, he could have formed a deadly partnership with Morgan Rogers. The enterprising attacker has had a superb start to the season. He put in a “phenomenal” performance against Arsenal last Saturday, as former England goalkeeper Ben Foster said on his YouTube channel, CyclingGK.
Rogers could have been a dream option in behind Abraham, who has a natural instinct in front of goal, as he showed the Villa Park faithful during his first spell at the club. Against the Gunners, the former Man City academy player played two key passes and created one big chance as per Sofascore.
Stat
Number
Touches
48
Passes completed
19/28
Ground duels won
8/10
Dribbles completed
5/7
Key passes
2
Big chances created
1
Getting Abraham – who has been dubbed "outstanding" by journalist Henry Winter – on some of the end of those chances would have been a recipe for success under Unai Emery.
He is a “superb centre-forward”, as football talent scout Jacek Kulig described him, and has elite movement off the last line and inside the penalty box. Given Rogers’ superb creativity in the final third and Abraham’s excellent goalscoring record in a Villa shirt, the pair no doubt would have linked up beautifully together.
Rogers ran the show against one of the best sides in the league, and pairing that up with the Roma striker could have helped them a great deal in their quest to reach the Champions League knockouts and finish in the top four once again.
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1 ByJoe NuttallAug 28, 2024
