Football FanCast
·11 March 2022
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Yahoo sportsFootball FanCast
·11 March 2022
Aston Villa were incredibly busy behind the scenes during the 2019 summer transfer window as they sought to strengthen their squad after securing promotion to the Premier League.
The Midlands club spent a total of £133.74m, according to Transfermarkt, on bringing a significant number of players to Villa Park on permanent deals such as Wesley, Douglas Luiz and Matt Targett among others.
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However, as tends to be the case with most clubs, not every player signed in that window ended up being a successful one for the Villans, with just five of the 12 players who secured permanent deals that summer still in the squad at this moment in time.
One player who was brought in to help Villa navigate their way through the 2019/20 Premier League season but ended up being a waste of money was winger Jota Peleteiro.
The Villa Park outfit signed the attacker from close rivals Birmingham City in a deal worth a reported £4m, making him their first signing of that summer’s transfer window.
With just 16 appearances under his belt across all competitions before leaving in October 2020 on a free transfer to Spanish club Alaves, the winger ended up costing the Midlands club £250k-per-appearance in addition to his £25k-per-week wages, with just one goal scored and two assists provided.
After making 25 appearances for Alaves, the Spaniard – who described his time with the Villans as “tough” – failed to score even once before being released last summer, and he is currently without a club.
In December 2019, Transfermarkt had Jota’s market value listed as £4.05m, whereas it now stands at just £1.35m, presumably as a result of his lack of action on the pitch over the past couple of years.
Taking all this into account, it’s safe to say that bringing the attacker to Villa Park was one deal where Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris made a rather costly mistake in signing the 30-year-old upon the club’s return to the Premier League.