Villa transfers: Unai Emery’s admiration for new club-record signing Moussa Diaby - and why he won’t feature against Newcastle

Unai Emery believes Moussa Diaby can help take Aston Villa to another new level following the confirmation of his club-record move from Bayer Leverkusen.

The French international winger put pen to paper on his Villa deal on Saturday, with a reported 60m euro (£51.9m) fee believed to have been agreed with the German Bundesliga side.

The 24-year-old’s signing was announced as Emery & Co prepare to face Newcastle United at the Philadelphia Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field Stadium (kick-off midnight tonight).

Despite linking up with his new team-mates Stateside, Diaby will take no part in the Premier League Summer Series fixture.

He’s not expected to start training until Monday, giving the Frenchman time to perhaps feature against Fulham (Thursday) or Brentford on Sunday.

Villa fans will therefore have to wait to see their third signing of the summer in action, with Diaby following Youri Tielemans and Pau Torres in moving to the club this summer.

In the meantime, though, Emery has been spelling out his admiration for the player and what he expects from Diaby in a Villa shirt with European football back on the agenda again after last season’s seventh-placed finish.

Welcoming the winger to the club, the Spaniard said: ‘I was very happy with the work we did last year, now this year we have to add some different players.

‘For us, Moussa Diaby is one player we were following.

‘He’s helping us, trying to improve our level of play in the attacking third, sometimes playing on the right, sometimes he’s playing as a No.10 and sometimes he’s playing as a left winger.

‘We are really excited and are really happy with him.

‘We have to build again our structure and Moussa is giving us another important step ahead.’

Emery added: ‘He is a winger, a striker and his best part is his capacity to attack, dribbling, running behind.

‘He has experience in Europe, he’s young and I think the qualities he’s going to give us, playing in different positions as well, I think he’s going to give us more power.’

Diaby registered 49 goals and 48 assists from his 173 games for Leverkusen.

Villa’s previous club record was the £33m they forked out for Emiliano Buendia from Norwich in June 2021.