Amadou Onana was one of the most coveted players on the summer 2024 transfer market, as the Everton star was courted by Manchester United, Arsenal, and Barcelona in a who’s who of historic European clubs.
In the end, however, Onana may have surprised some fans around the globe by choosing Aston Villa, a rising long-time Premier League club fresh off their first Champions League qualification ever.
Unsurprisingly, the best Belgian player at Euro 2024 has proven to be a rousing success at Villa Park thus far, making every use of the fact that he is the new centerpiece player in midfield for Aston Villa after Douglas Luiz was sent, by request, to Juventus.
According to a report from Give Me Sport, Aston Villa acquired Amadou Onana over their most serious competitor, Arsenal, because of the fact that he could be such a key player for the Lions.
Onana made his choice for Aston Villa because their coach Unai Emery, who used to coach Arsenal, made it clear that the Belgian would be a regular first-team player and feel important at his club.
Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta could not guarantee regular starts for Onana, which sounds a bit weird, considering they went ahead and signed an older world-class midfielder in Real Sociedad’s Mikel Merino to start ahead of Thomas Partey and Jorginho as Declan Rice’s partner.
Arsenal, in the end, were too passive with trying to sign Onana and didn’t make him feel valued, whereas Emery and Aston Villa believed in the player as one of the best in his position in the whole Premier League and are treating him as such.
With two goals and three combined tackles and interceptions per game for Aston Villa, the 23-year-old is rewarding Emery’s faith in him, and the 50 million pound transfer fee paid to Everton is starting to look like a potential bargain for the Champions League newcomers.
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