Aston Villa today finally announced the signing of Pau Torres from Villarreal in a deal said to be worth a reported £28 million plus £4.5 million in add-ons.
The move is subject to international clearance and a successful visa application.
A minority of Aston Villa supporters had begun to become a little impatient waiting for the news to officially be confirmed after Fabrizio Romano announced it was a done deal a little over a week ago.
Torres, born in Villarreal, came through the ranks at his hometown club and has been with them since 2002 with the highlight of his time with El Submarino Amarillo (The Yellow Submarine) coming in 2021 when they won the Europa League.
Villarreal was then managed by the current Villa boss, Unai Emery.
Squad Number
Aston Villa confirmed that Torres will take the number 14 shirt for the upcoming season.
The defender will also wear his first name ‘Pau’ on the back of his shirt, just has he has done throughout his country for club and country.
What will Torres bring to Aston Villa?
Emery has approached this summer by first completing his backroom staff and then his playing staff. Youri Tielemans was signed last month and the confirmation of Torres is the next piece of Emery’s Aston Villa jigsaw.
Despite Villa’s improvement under Emery, the Basque manager was frustrated by the amount of chances created by his side last season.
The two signings so far should play a big part in improving that, especially the signing of Torres who registered the most passes in the final third (275) from a defender in La Liga last season.
The defender is clearly good with the ball at his feet as the stats below prove, against any other defender in La Liga over the last campaign.
- Most touches (2560)
- Most passes completed (1846)
- Most through balls (3)
- Most take-ons completed (26)
- Second-most chances created (14)
Impressive eh? So this will enable Villa to build up their attacks from the back with more confidence.
Of course, it will be interesting to see who makes way for the Spanish international with Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa improving last season and the return of Diego Carlos who was ruled out for virtually the whole of the campaign.
One thing it does do is give Unai options and some much-needed competition which can only be a good thing for Aston Villa.
Welcome to Aston Villa, Pau!
A great signing, but we need more asap team going to the USA next week and it would be good to have more signings ready to go and gel with team mates.
We’re linked with some top players but that’s all it is at the moment and a quality CF is priority
[…] now last season’s finish could act as a platform for future success. The Spaniard has made some shrewd additions to the squad along with Tielemans this summer. Pau Torres will add even more solidity to the […]