Aston Villa’s transfer business during the summer window was amongst the most impressive in the Premier League, bringing in players of such calibre as Boubacar Kamara, Philippe Coutinho (permanently following his loan move) and Diego Carlos as Steven Gerrard sought to strengthen his squad.
Add in experienced top-flight quality such as Leander Dendoncker and Jan Bednarek and you would think Villa had a good chance at achieving a top-half finish this season.
It hasn’t exactly worked out to plan for Gerrard and his team, though, with the 42-year-old beginning to feel the pressure with just one win in six league matches so far. A credible draw against Manchester City in their last outing will hopefully be a sign of better things to come.
With this poor start in mind, it appears that the manager is already thinking ahead, with the club plotting a January swoop for Andrey Santos.
Journalist Jorge Nicola has claimed that Villa have joined the race to sign the Brazilian youngster from Vasco da Gama, with the Rio de Janeiro club requesting at least €38.5m (£33.5m) for any prospective suitors to secure his services.
Newcastle United have reportedly put a bid in of around €20m (£17.3m) for the 18-year-old, which is well short of the amount that the Brazilian outfit are seeking.
He has just signed a new deal taking his contract to 2027 and Gerrard may wait until January before he makes a move for the player.
Santos has played 26 matches this season and scored five times, which is an excellent return for a defensive midfielder, and some have even compared him to Barcelona and Spain icon Sergio Busquets.
Do Aston Villa need to sign Andrey Santos?
This comparison makes sense in terms of the teenager’s passing ability, his strength at protecting the defence and also his desire to make and win tackles; but he offers much more than that, especially for a defensive midfielder.
His goal tally suggests that he is very effective at being a proper box-to-box midfielder, and chipping in with a few goals here and there can help any team massively. To put into context just how much Santos differs in an attacking sense compared to Busquets, the Brazilian has five goals this season, whereas the Spaniard has only netted 18 times in his entire club career, which amounts to 683 matches.
Former Lyon midfielder and free kick master Juninho Pernambucano dubbed him a “monster”, and it looks like his next stage of development could come in Europe.
Gerrard should be doing all that he can to bring Santos to Villa in the January transfer window.
