Swapsies: Inside the Aston Villa and Juventus mega deal
What does this extraordinary player trade mean for both clubs?
Transfer silly season is underway, and it’s getting stranger and stranger every year. That strangeness has been headlined by Aston Villa, who are on the cusp of completing a rare player swap deal you almost never see.
Their partner in this weird trade is, obviously, Juventus. They have form for this sort of stuff — remember that Pjanić-Arthur deal that turned out very badly for everyone involved — but, interestingly, it’s not them with their metaphorical financial back against the wall this time. It’s Aston Villa.
Amongst all of this, two interesting young talents developed in the burgeoning Juventus Next Gen academy (see more below) are making the move to the Premier League, with established starter Douglas Luiz going the opposite way.
To put some sense into this deal, I snuck into the DMs of one Sam Tighe, long-time SCOUTED favourite, to flesh this all out and take stock of what it means for Villa, as they try to straddle the fine line between Premier League financial regulations and building a team ready to compete in the upcoming edition of the UEFA Champions League.
This piece is half Q&A, half analysis — what does this deal mean for the two clubs, and where do these players fit in? I’ve tagged my own analysis onto Sam’s insightful answers.
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