Aston Villa's radical £52m January transfer window predicted - including Real Madrid and Bournemouth deals
Aston Villa will look to bring in some quality new signings in the January transfer window
We're nearing the halfway point of the January transfer window, and Aston Villa are yet to make their first signing since it opened at the start of the month.
That's not to say Monchi and co. have been sitting around twiddling their thumbs and seeing off the last of the mince pies - far from it in fact. As things stand, Villa are powering on the pursuit of Borussia Dortmund winger Donyell Malen, while Celta Vigo defender Oscar Mingueza is another deal the club are keen to get over the line.
Aside from that, there have been plenty of other names linked with a move to Villa Park, including Caen forward Tidiam Gomis, while one outgoing could well be Jaden Philogene, with Ipswich Town pushing to close a £20m move for the Villa academy product.
As the Villans' recruitment drive looks set to go up a notch or too, we fired up the latest edition of Football Manager, and wound the clocks back to the start of the month. Running the simulator on until early February, we discovered every player Villa have been predicted to land in the winter window.
Which new players are Aston Villa predicted to sign?
In an exhilarating start to the month, Villa fans woke to the news that the club had banked a whopping £40m, following the surprise sale of Emi Buendia to Brentford. The deal represented a serious gamble for the Bees, given the Argentine's injury woes, and a bewildered Monchi found himself with an unexpected boost to the coffers to kick the window off in style.
How exactly did Villa celebrate this new found fortune? By signing Lewis Cook from Bournemouth, naturally. £9.5m was all it took to prise the midfielder away from the Cherries, who parted company with their midfield stalwart after nine years at the club.
Next up, Villa's scouts decreed that investing in Real Valladolid striker Juanmi Latasa would be a lovely bit of business, and his £10m signing rounded off a busy first week of the transfer window. The 21-year-old had only joined the Spanish side from Real Madrid last summer, but he was eager to make the switch to the West Midlands. Having failed to score in thirteen matches for his club this season, you can imagine they were only to happy to hand him over.
Very rarely does a transfer window go by without a report linking Brazil international Gabriel 'Gabigol' Barbosa with a move to the Premier League. In the real world, he actually sealed a move to Cruzeiro on January 1st, but when we set the calendar back on Football Manager, it was a Aston Villa who paid £20m to land the mercurially forward. A massive gamble, it must be said.
Another day, another nifty bit of scouting from Villa - £12m was enough to convince Greek Super League outfit PAOK to hand over dribbling dynamo Andrija Zivkovic. The 28-year-old is a seasoned Serbia international, and looked the ideal figure to offer Unai Emery some invaluable depth on the flanks.
With £52m already laid out on new signings, a low key Deadline Day was expected at B6. Indeed it was, in terms of money spent, but the club still managed to get two more players through the doors.
Goalkeeper Ionut Radu swapped the San Siro substitutes bench for Villa Park's, returning to the Premier League on loan after doing the same with Bournemouth last season. As the clock ticked closer to the deadline, the decision makers at Villa finalised a last-gasp swoop for Al-Ittihad defensive midfielder Danilo Pereira, who left the Saudi Pro League side on a temporary basis.
What next for Aston Villa?
Away from the transfer window, Villa will look to take their momentum from last Friday night's FA Cup third round win over West Ham United into this week's Premier League action.
Having been the opponents for Graham Potter's first game as Hammers manager, Emery's side will do the same for another Premier League side on Wednesday night, when they head to Goodison Park to take on David Moyes' Everton. It's set to be an intriguing encounter against the relegation-threatened Toffees, with their new boss returning to club twelve years on since his first spell in charge.
After that, it's another away fixture for Villa, who take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium this Saturday, before attention turns to the Champions League campaign and a glamorous away day against Ligue 1 outfit Monaco. As things stand, the Villans sit fifth in the new-look Champions League table, and will looking to get the necessary points to secure automatic progression to the knockout stages of the competition.