The Juventus stalwart also won the Euros with Italy

Aston Villa’s new president of football operations is yet to be revealed after the departure of Monchi but he or she looks set to have a mammoth task on their hands starting with the January transfer window, and they could do a lot worse than making a Juventus midfield metronome one of their first targets.

Monchi was instrumental in Aston Villa’s rise from a bottom-half Premier League side to the quarter finals of the Champions League and Unai Emery formed a close relationship with his compatriot, who helped bring Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Amadou Onana, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio to Villa Park.

However, the chickens came home to roost somewhat this summer as the large wage packets handed out by Aston Villa - particularly to Rashford and Asensio in their desperate push to re-qualify for the Champions League - meant the most recent transfer window was one of selling rather than upgrading.

Jettisoning Jacob Ramsey while only making one permanent front line addition in Evann Guessand was painful and has been followed by no wins and one goal scored in five Premier League games, leaving the Villans in the relegation zone.

However, the squad retains plenty of quality and that shedding in the summer means that they will be in a better position to attack the January transfer window, and Juventus’ Manuel Locatelli should be one of their top targets.

Manuel Locatelli can be part of the antidote for goal-shy Villa

Aston Villa’s lack of goals this season has been extremely well-documented, but what’s been given less air time is the source of that missing penetration. Whether you like prominence of the expected goals (xG) metric) or not, it’s situations like this where it comes in particularly useful, as it shows Aston Villa have created enough chances to score four goals in the Premier League this campaign.

That highlights that finishing is an issue, but it’s still the lowest in the top flight according Opta via FBRef.com meaning even if every side was average at finishing, Emery’s side would still be in heaps of trouble. That’s where Locatelli comes in.

The Juventus star ranks in the top 1% of players in his position for progressive passes across Europe’s top five leagues and his progressive passing distance of 443.46 metres per 90 minutes was not only more than any Premier League midfielder or attacker last season (who played more than 10 games), it was over 120 metres further than the next best player, Bruno Fernandes.

Only a handful of comparable players make more passes into the final third per game and his pass accuracy is also amongst the best on the continent over all three distances, at more than 90% for both short and medium balls. Of Aston Villa’s midfield options, no one made more combined passes into the final third and passes into the penalty area last season, no one has made more key passes (passes directly leading to a shot) per full game this campaign.

While a holding midfielder may seem an odd choice of signing for a team struggling for goals, and Locatelli would be unlikely to turn around the Villans’ fortunes on his own, Arsenal had the same struggle last season, added Martin Zubimendi and have already seen a 10% increase in finding the back of the net in 2025/26.

However, Emery and his new recruiting maestro won’t have it all their own way if they do decide to pursue the 32-cap Italy international.

Aston Villa to battle West Ham and Wolves for Locatelli

Despite Locatelli only celebrating his 28th birthday next January, Juventus are fielding offers for their club captain and the Premier League seems the most likely destination.

As Teun Koopmeiners continues to pick up minutes at the heart of the Old Lady’s midfield, Radio Radio report Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United are after the skipper, as well as Aston Villa, who despite their poor start to the season still look the more secure Premier League team out of the three.

It’s a head-scratching u-turn from Juventus boss Igor Tudor, who named Locatelli his captain in March and rejected a €30 million (£26m) bid from Al-Ahli in August. However, Tudor left Locatelli on the bench for his side’s Champions League opener less than a month later,

While Emery does have plenty of options to call upon in midfield, like the rest of the squad it’s a group that hasn’t been refreshed much since he began his first full season at Villa Park and Locatelli at that price could be a bargain.

With Locatelli’s contract expiring in 2028, Juventus will soon have to decide whether to cash in on their midfielder, established international and Champions League midfielders still in their twenties don’t come around at that price too often and Aston Villa should pounce while they have the chance.