Premier League clubs are known for their financial muscle in the transfer market and are known to go to great lengths to land their targets. To that tune, Aston Villa have put their foot down with regards to Arsenal’s move for Ollie Watkins, reportedly saying they will not accept lower than £70m for his signature. Additionally, Villa want the player to initiate a transfer request, which would mean they would have to terminate his contract, costing him £15m.
While this would benefit both Aston Villa and Arsenal, a deal of this nature would put Ollie Watkins under tremendous pressure. He might lose his current environment of trust and togetherness at Villa by putting in a transfer request, but could also never get another opportunity to move to Arsenal – a club he has supported since his younger days.
Watkins has made 11 appearances for the Villans against Arsenal and has scored six times in those games. Since joining the club in 2020, he has scored the highest number of goals at the Emirates Stadium as a visiting player. Seeing this, the Gunners have decided to bring him home.
Ollie Watkins’ career in numbers
Ollie Watkins was born in Torquay in 1995 and began his youth playing career with Buckland Athletic in 2002. He had a stint with Newton Town, before joining Exeter City, where he spent 10 long years between 2004-14. He broke into their first team that year, and went on to make 78 appearances for the club, scoring 26 goals and providing 17 assists.
That earned him a £1.8m to Brentford in July 2017, where he eventually made a name for himself and put himself on the map. Watkins made 143 appearances for the Bees, scoring 49 goals and providing 15 assists as well. Three years later in September 2020, he made the switch to Aston Villa for a then club-record fee rising to £33m.
So far in his career at Aston Villa, Watkins has made 201 appearances, scoring 81 goals and providing 35 assists as well. His ability to score goals and also bring teammates into the fray is a quality Arsenal undoubtedly like, and hence will do everything in their power to bring him to the Emirates Stadium.
