Aston Villa told to pay £67m to re-sign Tammy Abraham in summer due to Chelsea buy-back clause
Ollie Watkins has hit the form of his career at Aston Villa in recent weeks with the striker scoring in each of his last five Premier League appearances.
But the 27-year-old’s form doesn’t seem to have stopped Villa from taking a look at strikers they could sign in the summer transfer window with Tammy Abraham seemingly on their radar.
Roma’s Abraham, 25, spent the 2018/19 season on loan at Villa Park from Chelsea and according to a report by iNews on Thursday (2 March), the Villans are in the hunt to re-sign the England international.
However, it’ll be a costly move for Villa.
The iNews report says that Roma, who are currently fifth in Serie A, will want £67million for Abraham because that’s the value of the buy-back clause they agreed with Chelsea in August 2021 when he swapped the London for the Italian capital.
Aston Villa are reportedly “long-term admirers” of their former loan star and “plan to offer Unai Emery further backing in the transfer market as they look to push for Europe”.
And signing Abraham would not only show those ambitions are being backed – but it should also massively help achieve them.
Admittedly, Abraham’s not had the best of seasons for Roma.
In 33 appearances across all competitions, he’s scored seven goals and supplied five assists. His poor form has cost him his spot in Jose Mourinho’s starting line-up at times too with the ex-Chelsea ace having to make do with a spot on the subs’ bench five times in Serie A.
Last season, however, Abraham scored 27 times in 53 total appearances, firing Roma to the inaugural Europa Conference League title and a sixth-placed finish in Italy’s top flight.
Despite his struggles this season, he’s still a striker who’d be worthy of a spot in Emery’s plans at Villa Park next term.
According to Opta stats on the FBRef website, over the last 365 days, Abraham is in the 81st percentile of forwards for non-penalty xG per 90 minutes of game-time in Europe’s top five leagues and continental tournaments.
What does that mean, exactly?
It means that Abraham should score from open play more than most other strikers in the Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, et cetera.
His number of shots over the last year are surprisingly low at 2.33 per 90 minutes of action, ranking him in the 36th percentile. But to score the number of goals he has done in the last 12 months – 16 to be exact in all competitions for Roma – isn’t bad.
FBRef have used stats to calculate that Abraham is a similar striker to Atletico Madrid’s Alvaro Morata, Monaco’s Breel Embolo, West Ham’s Michail Antonio and – most interestingly – Villa’s in-form man Watkins.
Are the Villa looking at £67million-rated Abraham as a replacement for Watkins? Or is the plan for Emery to have a very specific type of forward and have Watkins play as backup to the former promotion-winning Villan?
WhoScored put together a rather handy comparison to see how Abraham’s offensive stats stack up next to those of Watkins.
While Watkins has scored more league goals this season, the Aston Villa striker has played more minutes than Abraham this term.
Unsurprisingly, based on the stats above, Watkins averages more shots per game than Abraham too.
But Abraham seems to be more involved in Roma’s attacking play rather than just being the man who sticks the ball in the back of the net.
While that could be down to Jose Mourinho’s style of play compared to that of Steven Gerrard or Emery, it’s interesting that Abraham has averaged more key passes and dribbles and won more fouls than Watkins per league appearance.
Abraham has also been offside fewer times, not been dispossessed as often and had fewer occasions where bad ball control has let him down while in possession.
If Aston Villa had Abraham up front this season instead of Watkins or Danny Ings, we’d be fairly confident in saying that he’d have more goals.
Yes, his form at Roma is stuttering but it’s clear that Abraham is a striker capable of scoring internationally with England, in the Premier League with Chelsea and in Serie A with Roma. He’s also proven that he can find the back of the net wearing Villa’s claret and blue.
Watkins’ form is sensational right now and that cannot be understated.
But while all roads point towards Abraham being a better option for Villa, will a club-record deal of £67million really be on the cards?
That’s down to Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, it seems.
In other Aston Villa news, Villa have been tipped to accept a “big-money” offer for this player in the summer transfer window.