Aston Villa are in a good place at the moment. A finish in the Champions League qualification spots is still more than achievable. They are currently six points behind Chelsea in fourth, but a fifth-place finish could be enough to see them qualify too, depending on the coefficient at the end of the season.
In the Champions League, they have a Round of 16 clash against either Atalanta, Club Brugge, Borussia Dortmund or Sporting CP. Brugge and Dortmund hold first-leg advantages in their playoff clashes this week.
Of course, Unai Emery will need his squad to perform to an incredibly high standard for the rest of the season to achieve their goals. Ollie Watkins will be crucial, and he is an excellent example of a proven transfer strategy for the Villans in the last few seasons.
Aston Villa’s best Championship signings
Something that has worked incredibly well for the Villans over the past five or so seasons is signing players from the Championship. Watkins is a shining example of this. After a fantastic performance in the second tier for Brentford, he moved to Villa for £33m including add-ons, where he has been a huge success.
The England international has been simply sensational in a Villa shirt. In 202 games for the club, he has scored 81 goals and registered 35 assists. He is well on his way to joining the Premier League 100 club, with 69 goals to his name so far.
However, it is not just in attack that Villa have had success buying from the Championship. Defenders such as Ezri Konsa, who also signed from Brentford, and Matt Cash, who joined from Nottingham Forest, are also players who have thrived.
Centre-back Konsa has played 219 games for Villa so far, managing to score eight goals in that time. He has also become a full England international. Cash has made 161 appearances for the club, and has 21 goals and assists. He is also an international footballer, representing Poland.
As good as these three players have been, there is arguably an even bigger success story when it comes to moving from a Championship side to Villa Park.
Aston Villa’s success story from the Championship
Has there been a more exciting player to watch this season than Villans attacker Morgan Rogers? He has been on fire throughout the campaign, described as an “unstoppable” force earlier in 2024/25 by Jamie Carragher.
The 22-year-old has only been at Villa Park for just over a year, meaning he joined under the tutelage of Emery. He made the move from Championship outfit Middlesbrough for a fee initially said to be £8m, but one that could rise to £15m with add-ons.
It is hard not to think at least some of those unnamed add-ons will have been met already, considering how well the attacker has played in a Villa shirt. He has played 50 games for the club in total, with 14 goals and seven assists in that time.
This season, the former Manchester City academy star has been excellent. He has played 33 games across all competitions for the West Midlands outfit, finding the back of the net on 11 occasions, and assisting his teammates six times.
Stat
Premier League
Champions League
FA Cup
Games
24
8
2
Minutes
1998
690
180
Goals
6
3
2
Assists
4
1
1
Mins per G/A
199
172
60
Perhaps Rogers’ best moment of the season was his fantastic hattrick in the Champions League against Scottish giants Celtic. Within five minutes, he had two goals but had to wait until the 91st minute to cap off a wonderful treble.
Given how well the Englishman has performed this season, it might be unsurprising to learn his value has risen so much from the £15m Villa spent on him just 12 months ago. According to CIES Football Observatory, he is now worth a whopping £67m.
That is a huge increase on the price Emery’s side paid last January. It has risen by an outrageous 349% in total, suggesting this was an excellent investment from Villa. It seems unlikely they will want to sell him anytime soon, but the West Midlands side would be in for a huge profit if they did.
As it happens, signing Rogers was a brilliant decision by the Villans. Not only is he worth millions more, but he is performing superbly well and does not show any signs of slowing down at the moment.
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