Aston Villa were busy in the summer transfer market, but it’s claimed that they missed out on one of their top targets on deadline day.
Roberto Di Matteo arrived at the club earlier this summer looking to oversee a dramatic rebuild, and eventually ended up bringing in eight new faces.
However, according to The Daily Star, Middlesbrough striker Jordan Rhodes was one that he had hoped to sign in a £1m loan move, but Boro opted to reject the offer and keep the forward at the club.
In turn, Villa switched their focus to Bristol City forward Jonathan Kodjia, and snapped him up for £15m to add further firepower to their squad.
Rhodes scored 16 goals in the Championship last season having bagged 21 in 45 appearances the previous year. In total, he scored 82 goals in 159 appearances for Blackburn before sealing his move to the Riverside Stadium.
As a result, it’s no surprise that Di Matteo was keen to add him to his group, as the Italian tactician has made a point of signing players with experience of playing in the second tier of English football.
Instead, he’ll hope that Kodjia and Ross McCormack can now strike up a deadly partnership, having cost the club £27m in total, as noted by The Star.
Villa have started the season slowly having picked up just five points in their opening five games of the campaign. However, as the new signings continue to settle and make their presence felt, Di Matteo will be confident that they can start to deliver sooner rather than later.
Pierluigi Gollini, Tommy Elphick, James Chester, Ritchie De Laet, Aaron Tshibola, Mile Jedinak, McCormack and Kodjia will form the new spine to the team this season, and time will tell as to whether or not they have enough to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.