£27m Premier League star wants to join Aston Villa

Aston Villa will play Champions League football next season, back in the big time after finishing fourth in the Premier League and then defeating Freiburg in Istanbul to lift the Europa League title.

Under Unai Emery, Villa ended a 44-year wait for silverware, and they have re-established themselves as one of English football’s most dangerous forces.

Whether Aston Villa stay on their perch over the next few years is dependent on a number of variables. One of which is how Emery deals with a few issues in attack, with Morgan Rogers‘ future a hot topic.

Aston Villa free to sign Premier League champion

Rogers and Ollie Watkins have led the Aston Villa charge over the past several years, and while Watkins, 29, is set to remain at the club, his England peer appears to be hungry for the next step in his career.

Rogers will only leave for a seismic fee, but we have to be candid and accept that his departure this summer is very much possible. Replacing him will be difficult, and arrive in different parts, but NSWE may have already landed on a shrewd way to strengthen the frontline.

According to Football Insider, Aston Villa are still interested in signing Leandro Trossard this summer. The Arsenal forward, who initially joined in a £27m move, is anticipated to leave the Emirates this summer and favours a move to Villa Park, rather than jetting over to Turkey, with Besiktas hoping to sign him.

The 31-year-old only has one year left on his contract, so could be affordable for a sharp fee. Besiktas are willing to spend £17m on the Belgian international, but it looks like the Gunners want more.

Why Trossard can be perfect for Watkins

Trossard isn’t the youngest Premier League forward on the block, but he is a champion and one of English football’s most ‘clutch’ goalscorers, instrumental in bringing Mikel Arteta’s project onto a title-winning platform since joining from Brighton & Hove Albion for £27m in January 2023.

Described as Arsenal’s “best finisher” by Gunners legend Ian Wright, Trossard has a natural instinct in front of goal, a predatory edge that would allow him to help replace Rogers and forge a connection with Watkins.

Watkins is a fine striker, excellent in front of goal. It is his movement and underlying intelligence that makes him special, though, so committed to the cause, his work ethic superlative.

By making deft runs across the frontline, stretching defenders and keeping them guessing, Emery would secure for Aston Villa a partnership capable of taking the club even further into the ascendancy.

It should go without saying that the Villans would need to replace Rogers with a younger man, someone with superstar potential. Real Sociedad’s Ander Barrenetxea is among the contenders for that role.

But Aston Villa are going to need to deepen their squad while maintaining their quality as they step back into the Champions League and juggle that workload with Premier League football.

Trossard would be perfect. His hunger to remain in English football serves as a testament towward his mindset, and in spite of starting only 21 matches this season, he scored six goals and assisted six more, creating eight big chances and coming up trumps on a number of occasion, often off the bench.

Aston Villa have exceeded expectations and then some under Emery, but there is a sense that the best may be yet to come, and shrewd signings such as Trossard will help cement the Midlands outfit’s position as one of Europe’s elite once again.