With Villa continuing to overhaul the playing squad, there are increased rumours linking recent acquisition Mbwana Samatta with a prompt exit.
The striker was signed for a less than small sum of £9.1m in January 2020 from Genk, as Villa reeled from a season ending injury to record Brazilian signing Wesley on New Years Day.
Samatta was a necessary purchase, but increasingly looked like a panic buy as the side began to lurch perilously close to relegation pre-lockdown.
Embed from Getty ImagesWith the further deterioration of the club’s league form, Samatta became a figure who Dean Smith looked to rely upon, particularly as the campaign resumed. However, the 27 year old Tanzanian international rarely looked capable of firing the goals to keep Villa up.
Indeed, such was the striker’s lack of prowess in front of goal, entire games went by without so much as an effort being registered. Aside from 2 goals, one of admittedly a fine header at Wembley in the Carabao Cup Final against Man City, he’s shown little to inspire great confidence.
Samatta’s failure to impress even resulted in him being dropped for Keinan Davis. Davis, somewhat infamously, still doesn’t have a Premier League goal to his name, but demonstrated that he was both involved and could contribute as Villa battled the drop.
It’s no surprise to The Villa Underground that the striker looks set to depart, with record £33m signing Ollie Watkins acquired and further moves in the transfer market imminent.
Samatta would reasonably now find himself behind Watkins, Wesley and Davis before any new arrivals are even taken into consideration.
There had been links to a move to Turkey much earlier in the summer transfer window, but it had been Keinan Davis who appeared most likely to go out on loan. Galatasaray had been the side reported to be showing an interest in taking Samatta off Villa’s hands.
The latest updates indicate that it’s instead Fenerbahce who are firming up their interest, with a surprise late move from West Brom having emerged too.
Samatta, who is on a lengthy 4 and a half year deal at Villa, will initially most likely go out on loan. However, given the limited promise seen to date, one wonders if Dean Smith might even consider cutting his losses even at this early stage.
NEWSLETTER
Don’t forget to SIGN UP to our 100% FREE Villa Newsletter.
A decade of Villa News to your inbox – JOIN TODAY!
Want to help even more? Please Donate
It’s been a tough transition for Samatta.
Coming into the team at the tail end of January and getting, what, a month and a half of of football at his new club before the Covid-19 lockdown? Not a easy job. He managed to score a couple before lockdown, but really looked out of his depth when it came to playing in the Premiership in general. He didn’t seem to understand his role in the team, and, if anything, looked even more lost and anonymous when the season resumed.
That’s not entirely his fault of course, it would have been a hard ask for anyone to come in and hit the ground running under those circumstances. It would be wrong to write Samatta off so soon – he clearly knows where the back of the net is – but the fact is that he has struggled to adapt to the way we play and Keinan proved to be more effective for us in the closing weeks of the season. Watkins has come in and once Wesley is back to fitness it’s likely Samatta would end up being fourth choice in a team that only really plays one striker.
It was really hard to adopt the English P/L so far… But if villa will show their sincere heart to a young man who will do great things for them. have you forgotten what he did to Liverpoor?