Aston Villa are reportedly weighing up an audacious swoop for Villarreal’s sought-after £40 million-rated defender Pau Torres after receiving the ‘green light’ from new boss Unai Emery.
According to Football Insider, Aston Villa are keeping tabs on Villarreal defender Pau Torres ahead of making an ambitious swoop for the 25-year-old Spanish international in 2023.
Following the mid-season switch to a new club, Aston Villa’s new manager, Unai Emery, is likely to have been promised funds for the winter transfer market in a bid to move Villa away from the bottom three in the Premier League table, and he appears keen to raid his former club Villarreal for talent.
Recent reports suggested that the Lions have already joined the transfer race to capture the signature of exciting 21-year-old Villarreal attacker, Nicolas Jackson, who will be out-of-contract next summer and able to sign a pre-contract agreement with an overseas club from January onwards.
Jackson isn’t the only Villarreal ace Emery could look to reunite with. The above report states Villa have now set their sights on Spain international centre-back Pau Torres, who is a long-term target of Manchester United and is still being courted by a host of top European clubs.
A product of Villarreal’s academy, Torres initially joined the club as a youngster in 2002 and has since progressed through the ranks, including a developmental loan spell at Malaga in La Liga 2, before enjoying a breakout season in 2019.
The 25-year-old has been a Rolls Royce at the back for the Yellow Submarine since then, earning widespread praise for his classy yet commanding performances. He has made nearly 150 competitive appearances for the Spanish club, played a big part in their 2021 Europa League triumph, and reached the Champions League semi-finals last season.
Aston Villa have one of the shakiest defences in the division, and one has to look no further than their 4-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle over the weekend. Not only are things not clicking at the back, but their central defenders are making costly errors when under pressure from the opposition’s forward players.
Torres is a composed, elegant defender in possession and is at ease with playing the ball out from the back thanks to his exceptional passing range and variety of passes with his left foot. Furthermore, he has superb positioning and reads the game really well.
Even though he is 6ft 3in tall, he is not as physically imposing and doesn’t go flying into needless tackles. He is not particularly fast, but he commands the air. As alluded to above, he’s a left-footed centre-back, which also means more passing options open up for him as opposed to a right-footed centre-back in the left-side centre-back position.
Signing someone of Torres’ calibre would indeed be difficult for Villa, particularly in their current relegation-battling predicament, and would likely cost a fortune, but he’s the sort of signing that could be worth his weight in gold and be the perfect defensive lynchpin for Emery’s project at Villa Park.
