Aston Villa had a howler over Mbwana Samatta transfer | OneFootball

Aston Villa have seen many players come in and out of the club since they got promoted back to the Premier League after beating Derby County in the 2019 Championship Play-Off final.

In terms of some of the players that the Midlands club have signed in recent years, one that particularly sticks out for all the wrong reasons for being a waste of time and money is striker Mbwana Samatta.

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The Midlands club spent a fee of £8.5m back in the 2020 January transfer window to bring the striker to Villa Park from Belgian club Genk, after Wesley picked up a serious knee injury just a couple of weeks prior that ruled him out for the remainder of that season.

Having made 14 Premier League appearances, the Tanzanian, who was picking up a weekly wage of £40k-per-week according to Spotrac, could only find the back of the net once which came in a 2-1 defeat against AFC Bournemouth, which is less than the five league goals Wesley managed to score before picking up his injury.

As well as a lack of goals, the 29-year-old’s overall performances in the league didn’t live up to much either with WhoScored giving him an uninspiring overall rating of 6.42, making him one of the lowest-rated players to start more than two league games for the Villans, highlighting just how badly suited he was playing in the Premier League.

In September 2020, the striker joined Turkish club Fenerbahce on loan before signing on a permanent deal in July 2021, 75 weeks after his uneventful move to England with Villa.

Rather unsurprisingly, the centre-forward described his time at the Midlands club and his eventual lack of regular game time there as “painful.”

Did Villa make a mistake signing Samatta?

Yes

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No

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Taking all of this into account, there’s no denying the fact that Samatta was just not right for Villa at that time and the club’s owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris have ended up wasting a combined total of £11.5m on him from his transfer fee and weekly wages.