Why Aaron Wan-Bissaka Makes Plenty of Sense for Aston Villa

Aston Villa are closing in on a deal for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and, while he probably isn’t the type of right-back I would have expected the club to target if you had asked me at the beginning of the summer, the structure of the proposed move makes much more sense when you consider the circumstances Villa are operating within and the fact that they simply cannot go into another season asking Matty Cash to carry the position virtually on his own.

Jacob Tanswell reported that Villa were close to reaching an agreement with West Ham over a loan which would include an option to buy, having initially seen a straight loan proposal rejected, and you can completely understand why West Ham weren’t particularly interested in that first offer because there wasn’t really anything in it for them. A loan with an option creates a different situation and, from Villa’s perspective in particular, gives them an experienced Premier League right-back for a season without having to commit another sizeable transfer fee immediately.

That is important in the current financial landscape Villa are working within, because while they would presumably take on Wan-Bissaka’s salary and that won’t be insignificant, deferring any potential transfer fee for 12 months gives the club room to strengthen a position which genuinely needs addressing without eating further into what they are able to do elsewhere this summer. If Wan-Bissaka performs and Villa decide he is somebody they want to keep, they have the option to make that happen, whereas if it doesn’t quite work or Emery decides he wants something different from the position longer term, they haven’t necessarily locked themselves into another major commitment.

I’ve spoken previously about wanting Villa to recruit slightly differently at right-back and ideally you might find a younger player who can come in behind Cash, develop under Emery and eventually have the potential to become the first choice, but Villa have actually tried versions of that approach over the last couple of years and it hasn’t really worked. The end result has consistently been Cash playing whenever he is fit because Emery hasn’t had another right-back he genuinely trusts to come into the side without weakening it significantly, and given the amount of football Villa are now trying to play across the Premier League, Champions League and domestic cups, that isn’t really sustainable.

Cash put his body through an enormous amount last season and it would be unfair to ask him to do exactly the same thing again, particularly when Villa are supposed to be building a squad capable of competing on multiple fronts, so whatever anybody thinks about Wan-Bissaka stylistically, he immediately gives Emery something he hasn’t really had in that position for a while, which is another established senior right-back who can be selected for a Premier League or Champions League game without everybody wondering whether he is ready for it.

Wan-Bissaka has played a huge amount of Premier League football, spent years at Manchester United, experienced European competition and dealt with the scrutiny and expectation that comes with representing a club of that size, so there isn’t really an adaptation gamble involved here. His reputation has always been built around his one-v-one defending and there will undoubtedly be games where that becomes extremely useful for Villa, particularly against elite wide players, even if there are other parts of his game which might require some adjustment to exactly what Emery wants from his full-backs.

The wages will obviously be fairly substantial and Villa would presumably be taking them on in full, but salaries across the Premier League are enormous now and I don’t think looking at the wage in isolation tells you very much about whether the deal makes sense. The important thing is the overall package and, if Villa can bring in an experienced Premier League player for a year without paying a transfer fee now, while retaining control over whether they want to make it permanent next summer, I don’t have a massive problem with that.

Kosta Nedeljkovic is heading out and Villa need another option in the position, while the last few seasons have shown that simply signing another young right-back and hoping they develop quickly enough to challenge Cash isn’t necessarily going to solve the immediate issue. Villa have undergone plenty of change already this summer as well, so there is also something to be said for adding somebody who already understands the level rather than every arrival being another player who needs time, patience and development before Emery can completely trust them.

It might not be the right-back signing I would have picked out at the start of the window and it probably isn’t going to be the deal that excites Villa supporters most this summer, but squad building isn’t always about finding the most exciting name or the player with the biggest potential upside. Sometimes you have a very obvious problem and need to find a sensible way of fixing it, and Villa have needed a proper, credible alternative to Matty Cash for long enough that getting an established Premier League right-back on loan, with the flexibility to decide what happens next summer, looks like a pretty sensible piece of business to me.