As announced by Aston Villa’s website and social media (tweet – below), the Villans chase for Brentford star Ollie Watkins is finally over. It’s also, according to The Mirror [11:38], a capture that has come at a club-record transfer fee of £28m.
• Medical ✅
• Photoshoot ✅
• Interview ✅
• Meet the boss (again) 😉𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗦 with Ollie Watkins on his first day at Bodymoor! 🎥#WatkinsAnnounced pic.twitter.com/CjlEqi4xrC
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) September 9, 2020
Watkins follows Brentford’s Neal Maupay to the Premier League and, in doing so, becomes another Bees player bought at a bargain and sold at a huge profit.
He started out at Exeter City and, whilst at The Grecians, Watkins featured in 78 games, scoring 26 goals and creating 17 assists. It was this form that convinced Brentford to pay £1.8m for his services.
Over the last three seasons, Watkins has hit the back of the net 46 times as well as adding 13 assists. Last season, a move inside saw him simply fizz. Playing in the middle of a front-three, Watkins exploded for 26 goals and three assists.
Those goals were 16 more than he managed in 2017/18 and 2018/19 when he scored just 10 in each campaign. That level of goal threat is enough to make any side dig deep when looking for a striker.
Commenting on the deal that reunited him with former boss Dean Jones, Watkins said of the deal:
“It’s been a long time coming but I’m buzzing it’s done now, I can’t wait to get going. He [Dean Smith] sold it to me as soon as I met him.
Watkins went on to add that:
“I told my agent I really want to get that sorted as soon as I heard they were interested“
Brentford won’t be the only winners here as Exeter City are thought to have included a sell-on clause of 15% in the deal which took Watkins to Brentford in the first place.