Aston Villa could sign dream Watkins partner in £13m Duran upgrade

Aston Villa maintained their improbable Premier League title challenge on Saturday afternoon with a close victory over relegation-threatened Burnley. But as evidenced by four of the final nine points, head coach Unai Emery still has a lot of work ahead of him.

The Villans appear to be limping into 2024, but Emery will be relieved to learn that the January transfer window, which gives him the opportunity to bolster his team before the second half of the season, is less than a day away.

The Spanish coach is already reportedly eyeing up some targets and is said to be keen on bringing one player to the club to bolster his attacking department.

Aston Villa transfer news – Cyril Ngonge

According to a report from Tuttomercatoweb last week, Aston Villa have been keeping tabs on Hellas Verona frontman Cyril Ngonge ahead of the winter window. The outlet are claiming that the 23-year-old is currently priced at £13m by the Italian club and that Villa have scouted the player numerous times already this season.

Ngonge, who joined the Verona team in January of last year, scored five goals in the regular season despite only joining halfway through. He scored two goals in the relegation playoff against Spezia in June to secure I Gialloblu’s spot in Serie A for another year. The Belgian, who has played as a winger and a second striker, is the Italian team’s top scorer once again this year, adding two assists to his tally of five goals. Marco Baroni’s team is just one goal above the relegation zone due to goal differential.

In fact, Ngonge has scored 33.3% of Verona’s total league goals this campaign but the Serie A strugglers could lose him in January, with Villa interested in securing his services.

Cyril Ngonge’s stats this season

Injuries and suspensions aside, Emery’s starting lineup has been quite consistent this season. However, the one area that has been tweaked quite a few times by the manager has been the position beside centre-forward Ollie Watkins.

Sometimes, Emery has deployed a two-man frontline, with Moussa Diaby, Jhon Duran or Leon Bailey partnering with Villa’s talisman. Other times, Youri Tielemans or Nicolo Zaniolo have sat as a number ’10’ in the hole behind the striker.

Bailey has undoubtedly been the most successful alternative attacker to Watkins, having scored nine goals and recorded eight assists in all competitions. However, his best position has been off the right, having bagged six goals and two assists on the wing.

Diaby has been Emery’s third-most prolific forward this term, with five goals and four assists but the Frenchman has managed to find the net only twice in his last 13 appearances. Meanwhile, rotation options Tielemans and Zaniolo have three goals between them in a combined total of 44 matches.

Due to Diaby’s inconsistent play, Bailey must frequently fill the vacuum alongside Watkins. Matty Cash has been utilized as a right-winger but has been awkward doing so. The Poland international last filled that role during Villa’s dramatic 2-1 victory against Brentford two weeks ago, although he was substituted after 65 minutes. The Birmingham World gave his performance a 5/10 match rating.

Bailey should keep playing off the right, where he is most effective, and Ngonge could take Watkins’ spot next to him. The only other option is to give Duran more playing time, but Ngonge has outperformed the Colombian 20-year-old this season in a number of important offensive stats, as seen

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