Aston Villa beat West Brom to new signing – Sky Sports
Aston Villa have beaten West Brom to the signing of striker Ollie Watkins from Brentford, according to Sky Sports.
Watkins, 24, had a stunning season in the Championship last season and was understandably tagged as Slaven Bilic’s “top target” for the current transfer window by the Daily Mail.
Although Bilic wanted Watkins, Albion knew they were unlikely to be able to afford the ex-Exeter man and failed to make a serious move for him.
Now, Sky Sports claims that Villa have agreed to pay up to £33million for the centre-forward, even though he has no experience of playing in the Premier League.
We’re not going to suggest that Watkins is a poor addition to Dean Smith’s squad but it is going to take a lot for the former Brentford player to show that he is worthy of what Aston Villa could end up paying for him.
Sky’s claim that Villa have “beaten” the Baggies to Watkins is a weird one though, as clearly the Black Country club wasn’t seriously in the race to sign such an expensive player due to the restricted transfer budget at The Hawthorns.
Talk has moved on from Watkins in the past few weeks with Troy Deeney and Karlan Grant being discussed as more realistic targets while Michy Batshuayi was mentioned but he seems to be on his way to Crystal Palace.
But, then again, Sky Sports do call West Brom and Aston Villa “city rivals”, which suggests the author has absolutely no clue about the geography of the West Midlands.
In other West Brom news, fans are wowed by this transfer update.
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