Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins has outlined how ‘surprising’ it is that players of Diego Carlos’ and Boubacar Kamara’s quality have chosen to join the club this summer whilst also referencing the ‘project’ in place. Villa acted quickly in the summer transfer window to secure the £26 million signing of Diego Carlos from Sevilla and the free agent Boubacar Kamara, who was being heavily linked with moves to clubs such as Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea. Villa boss Steven Gerrard commented on the calibre of signing
Steven Gerrard saying: ‘To attract players who had options to play in the Champions League is a big coup for the club. There was no point in me trying to recruit players that were going to make us stand still and I didn’t want to recruit players just to add to the numbers. I wanted to make players that were good enough for the XI, to make a difference. Diego’s going to be a really big man and a leader for us at the back. You can see that straight away and Kamara’s going to give us style, he’s going to give us a passing range that I didn’t feel we had. We want to be one of those teams that tries to upset the natural dynamics of the Premier League. If that means we snatch a European place, fantastic, because we’ve got to reach for the stars. But the minimum for me is we’ve got to be operating in the top-half of the league.’
Speaking to Football Daily, Villa striker Watkins has also commented on the quality of the two players, where he highlighted how ‘nice’ it is to see the new recruits believe in the current project in place at the club.
Ollie Watkins said: “From what I’ve seen he’s a monster really. Like I said yeah it’s surprising that he’s chosen Villa when he’s had bigger offers. It’s really nice to see because they believe in the project so yeah that’s nice and also Bouba [Kamara], he breaks up play and defensively is what we needed I think.”
