Aston Villa complete £51m record transfer as Unai Emery revolution continues
Aston Villa have completed the club record signing of France star Moussa Diaby.
Diaby, 24, has joined from Bayer Leverkusen in a £51million deal.
The winger, who has 10 international caps having initially broken through at Paris Saint-Germain, has already linked up with his new teammates on their US tour.
Diaby scored 14 times for Leverkusen last season under the guidance of Xabi Alonso, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder. He was Emery’s No.1 choice attacking signing this summer, with the Spaniard keen to finally solve what had become a problem position on the right side of Villa’s attack.
Brennan Johnson, the Nottingham Forest forward, was also of interest, but Diaby was Villa’s top choice and elected to snub a big-money move to Saudi Arabia to move to the West Midlands.
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The Villans have paid an initial £43million to land Diaby, with an extra £8.9m in add-ons.
He becomes the club’s third eye-catching signing of the summer, following the arrivals of Youri Tielemans and Spain centre-back Pau Torres.
Villa are determined to strengthen further as they prepare to play in Europe for the first time since 2010, with Rennes winger Jeremy Doku among their targets.
They are also keen to add another centre-forward to rival first-choice Ollie Watkins, and are looking for a new right-back to challenge Matty Cash, following Ashley Young's departure.
Emery worked wonders at Villa Park in the second half of last season after replacing Steven Gerrard in the dugout and the former Arsenal boss is understood to be targeting a top four tilt in the coming campaign.
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