Aston Villa's £100m Transfer Strategy Boosts Unai Emery's Summer Bonus

Aston Villa completed their winter transfer business in the early hours this morning, with Axel Disasi their fifth capture of the window.

The 26-year-old defender is the latest arrival at Villa Park, following the loan signings of Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio on consecutive days. Before those loan signings, Villa signed Donyell Malen from Borussia Dortmund and Andres Garcia from Levante on permanent deals for a combined £26m. Villa have an option to make Rashford's loan permanent for £40m, while Paris Saint-Germain are reportedly willing to let Asensio stay at Villa for next season too.

The club had a huge £100m generated through the sale of players, topped by Jhon Duran's £65m transfer to Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr. First to leave was Jaden Philogene for Ipswich Town for £20m, then Diego Carlos for Fenerbahce for £8.5m.

Aston Villa also received loan fees, including a £1m fee from Hull City for Louie Barry's loan until the end of the season. In the meantime, Emi Buendia joined Bayer Leverkusen with an option to buy permanently for £17m in the summer and RB Leipzig has an option to buy Kosta Nedeljkovic after his loan.

The January window was one of the busiest for Villa in many years, the first with Monchi, the President of Football Operations, firmly at the wheel. Selling such an important player as Duran was never going to be easy, but Monchi-backed by Damian Vidagany and Unai Emery-remained committed to a strategic approach: every incoming player must be capable of competing for a first-team spot and raising the overall level of the squad.

It's proved a decent Villa strategy so far. Malen for Philogene and Asensio for Buendia felt like upgrades, while Disasi might be a more reliable fit than Carlos despite the Brazilian's influence on the team last term. Selling Duran is slightly concerning but the 21-year-old wanted out and £65m plus add-ons was deemed a strong return by the club.

Having signed Rashford to add weight to the team, Villa abstained from signing another center-forward to give Ollie Watkins some competition. Instead, they signed an assured talent in Rashford, who has shown his potential when at his best. Now, the job of Emery, the revitalizer of forwards, is to unlock the full potential of Malen and Rashford to see them perform at their helms.