Matt Maher: Aston Villa's season may rest on disproving an old football cliche
The success or otherwise of Villa’s season may now rest on disproving the old football cliche you should never go back.
This was a transfer window when all the new faces were old faces.
In the case of Leon Bailey, it is more accurate to say the winger never really left. Just five unproductive, unhappy months on loan at Roma was all Bailey spent away before being recalled.
For Douglas Luiz, the wait was a little longer, his loan return from Juventus occurring around 18 months after he was sold to the Italian giants for £42.5million.
The longest interval belongs to Tammy Abraham, who finally became a permanent Villa player more than six-and-a-half years after helping fire the club back into the Premier League and following several previous failed attempts to secure his signature.
Abraham’s signing was the only one not dictated by events in a month where Villa, restricted as usual by financial fair play requirements, were also left to rue their bad fortune with John McGinn, Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara all going down on consecutive weekends, the latter sustaining a knee injury which ruled him out for the season.
Emery has long admired Abraham and the striker was top of his list heading into the window, with the Villa boss prepared to rejig his forward line to bring in more natural cover for Ollie Watkins should circumstances allow.
