Aston Villa has high ambitions for next season despite missing out on the Champions League.
Unai Emery’s project is still very ongoing, and the next step is for him to lead the club to its first major trophy in nearly 30 years.
The Europa League could be the best shot. This is especially true because if you win, you will be able to secure a spot in the 2026/27 Champions League.
To do this, he must sign several well-known players while adhering to PSR regulations in the process.
With this in mind, it appears that the club is following the current Barcelona players’ movements.
Aston Villa chases a dive for the Barcelona sense
It may be a bit difficult to attract the type of player Emery wants at the club this summer, but it hasn’t stopped the Spaniards from trying.
Reports in Spain (by sports witnesses) claim that Villa is signing Barcelona starlet Fermin Lopez in battle with Chelsea and PSG.
The report says the Villa and the French giant have come into contact with Lopez and are showing most interest.
Chelsea will be able to make an offer worth 75 million euros (£63 million) in the near future, securing his signature. That means Emery has to act quickly to win his man.
Why Aston Villa must sign Lopez
There are so many talented players on the LA La Liga side. Lopez is on the list that includes Pedri, Gavi, Pau Cubarsi and of course Ramin Yamal.
Well, of those players, it’s Yamal, who he is the most similar. When compared to the positionally similar players in this term, Lariga, FBREF suggests that the generational wonder and the Ballon d’Or candidate is the fourth-like player with Lopez.
The latter may play a more central role compared to Yamal, who operates on the right, but the duo shared similar statistics in the LA La Liga last season.
According to FBREF, the duo recorded similar metrics including shot-making actions per 90 (4.10 vs. 5.92), goal-making actions (0.50 vs. 0.91), successful take-on percentages (45.5% vs. 50.9%) and shots at target percentages (36.6% vs. 31.9%).
In that evidence, they are both creative players who love to reach their markers/
Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez statistics last season | ||
|---|---|---|
metric | league | Champions League |
the goal | 6 | 1 |
assist | 5 | 3 |
A big opportunity has been created | 8 | 3 |
Shots for each game | 1.5 | 1.5 |
Key Passes for each game | 1 | 0.5 |
Via Sofascore | ||
His former manager of the Catalonia Club explained that Lopez has “all packages,” and judging from his statistics and performance earlier this rating is banging money.
In addition to 11 goal contributions, Lopez averaged one key pass per game, creating eight big opportunities on the top flight.
These are truly impressive statistics, considering he started 12 league games and averaged 45 minutes per match.
If he transitions to Villa, he will certainly secure more games in Starting XI than he was given under Hanshiflic last season.
But does he want to drop and play in the Europa League? Or is long-term projects at villas enough to seduce young people?
The next few weeks could certainly be interesting and given that he provided similar statistics to Yamal’s stats last season, he would have a great signing.
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