Why Aston Villa were willing to break their club record to beat Arsenal to Emiliano Buendia

Stefan Bienkowski

• 10 Jun 2021 19:51 BST
• 3 min read

Aston Villa completed one of the signings of the summer on Thursday evening when they confirmed that Emiliano Buendia had made the move from Norwich to join them.

The 24-year-old Argentine forward made the move to the Premier League side after Villa forked over a club-record fee believed to potentially reach a remarkable sum of £38 million.

READ MORE: What do Man Utd need to do to sign Jadon Sancho this summer?

Speaking to the club website following the news, Villa head coach Dean Smith said: “Emiliano [Buendia] has just completed an outstanding season in a championship-winning Norwich side with 31 combined goals and assists and was named player of the season across the league.

“He is equally capable as a wide attacker or as a number 10 and is a great addition to our attacking options.

“We are delighted to have made such an exciting signing so early in the summer and look forward to Emi joining up with us for a full pre-season.”

But what kind of player have Villa not only signed but managed to snap up despite interest from Arsenal? Let’s take a look.

What will Buendia bring to Villa’s team next season?

As Smith alluded to himself, Buendia has developed into a fantastic forward player for Norwich over the last 12 months and was one of the very best players in the English Championship when it came to scoring or creating goals.

In 39 league games for the Canaries, the 24-year-old forward amassed an impressive 15 goals and 17 assists.

In other words, not only was Buendia the seventh top goalscorer in the division last season, but he was also the very best playmaker among his peers in the second tier throughout the campaign too.

Naturally, these kinds of numbers are exactly why Arsenal wanted the Argentine talent and explains why Villa have broken their own club record to sign the player.

Now it just remains to be seen whether Buendia will be able to transfer that blistering form in the Championship into the most demanding league in the world.