Gerrard can land his own Busquets in Santos

Aston Villa’s switch enterprise throughout the summer time window was amongst essentially the most spectacular within the Premier League, bringing in gamers of such calibre as Boubacar Kamara, Philippe Coutinho (completely following his mortgage transfer) and Diego Carlos as Steven Gerrard sought to strengthen his squad.

Add in skilled top-flight high quality equivalent to Leander Dendoncker and Jan Bednarek and you’d suppose Villa had a great probability at attaining a top-half end this season.

It hasn’t precisely labored out to plan for Gerrard and his workforce, although, with the 42-year-old starting to feel the pressure with simply one win in six league matches to date. A reputable draw in opposition to Manchester Metropolis of their final outing will hopefully be an indication of higher issues to come back.

With this poor begin in thoughts, it seems that the supervisor is already pondering forward, with the membership plotting a January swoop for Andrey Santos.

Journalist Jorge Nicola has claimed that Villa have joined the race to signal the Brazilian teenager from Vasco da Gama, with the Rio de Janeiro membership requesting no less than €38.5m (£33.5m) for any potential suitors to safe his companies.

Newcastle United have reportedly put a bid in of round €20m (£17.3m) for the 18-year-old, which is nicely wanting the quantity that the Brazilian outfit are looking for.

He has simply signed a brand new deal taking his contract to 2027 and Gerrard could wait till January earlier than he makes a transfer for the participant.

Santos has performed 26 matches this season and scored five instances, which is a superb return for a defensive midfielder, and a few have even compared him to Barcelona and Spain icon Sergio Busquets.

Do Aston Villa have to signal Andrey Santos?

This comparability makes sense when it comes to {the teenager}’s passing means, his power at defending the defence and likewise his need to make and win tackles; however he affords far more than that, particularly for a defensive midfielder.

His aim tally suggests that he’s very efficient at being a correct box-to-box midfielder, and chipping in with a number of objectives right here and there might help any workforce massively. To place into context simply how a lot Santos differs in an attacking sense in comparison with Busquets, the Brazilian has 5 objectives this season, whereas the Spaniard has solely netted 18 instances in his complete membership profession, which quantities to 683 matches.

Former Lyon midfielder and free kick grasp Juninho Pernambucano dubbed him a “monster”, and it seems like his subsequent stage of growth may are available in Europe.

Gerrard ought to be doing all that he can to carry Santos to Villa within the January switch window.