Unai Emery confirms Aston Villa want Italy attacker ‘to help us’ as transfer interest is confirmed
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has confirmed the club are interested in signing Italy forward Nicolo Zaniolo, as he has the “qualities to help us”.
The attacking areas of the Villa squad have received a boost this summer in the form of Moussa Diaby. The winger joined for £51million from Bayer Leverkusen, becoming Emery’s third summer signing, after Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres.
Villa have taken a blow in that Emi Buendia’s sustained an injury, and will miss the first chunk of the season. As such, they’re apparently looking for attacking assets, and Italy forward Zaniolo is a player that’s been mentioned.
A report of late suggested sporting director Monchi had put the forward at the top of the club’s transfer list. Emery has since confirmed the interest in the forward.
“Zaniolo is not a striker. He is versatile. He can play a pointe, number 7 or number 10 and he’s one of those we have on the list, with the qualities he has, to help us. He’s on our list and there are others,” Emery said, quoted by Tuttomercatoweb.
Those qualities have been on show at Galatasaray over the past few months. Zaniolo moved there from Roma in February, and scored five goals in 10 league games.
He had previously had an impact for Roma, where he was directly involved in 42 goals in 128 games – a tally which would likely be higher had he not been plagued by injuries throughout his spell at the club.
In any case, he’s clearly a player Emery has identified as somebody who can be effective at Villa. It might not take too much to convince him to head to Villa Park.
Indeed, a previous report suggested Zaniolo has ‘already said yes’ to joining. It was also stated ‘negotiations’ were ongoing with Galatasaray regarding the transfer.
Zaniolo set them back around £15million plus add-ons. Having not been able to call upon his services for too long, Galatasaray would likely demand a larger fee than what they paid for him if they’re to let him go.
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