Aston Villa Opinion: Charlie Austin would add little value to the Lions attacking ranks next season
According to Birmingham Live, Aston Villa have been credited with an interest in Southampton striker Charlie Austin, with reports claiming that the Saints are keen to cash in on the 29-year-old out-of-form attacker this summer.
Austin, though, is not the only Southampton player to have attracted interest from Villa Park, with the same report claiming that left-back Matt Targett has also been lined up by the Lions as a potential target.
Charlie Austin has slipped down the pecking order at St.Mary’s since the arrival of manager Ralph Hasenhuttl and the 29-year-old was forced to settle for a place on the bench in the second half of this past campaign.
As well as Shane Long, Austin endured a dreadful season at Southampton and failed to make any kind of impact, scoring just thrice in 27 appearances for the Saints in all competitions.
Taking that lacklustre strike rate into account, Southampton’s willingness to offload him looks quite reasonable and it doesn’t require a rocket scientist to figure out that Austin has largely underwhelmed over the past couple of seasons. His tally of 20 goals in 81 appearances for the Saints in all competitions till date makes decent readings but, in all honesty, his form in recent times has been really poor.
Austin played non-league football for the likes of Kintbury Rangers, Hungerford Town and Poole Town before earning a move to Swindon Town in League One.
His stellar performances in the third-tier earned him a move to Burnley in the Championship back in 2011 and it was at Turf Moor that Austin carved out a big reputation for himself, scoring 44 goals in 90 appearances for the Clarets in the second-tier over the course of two seasons.
The Berkshire-born forward switched boats to join QPR back in 2013 and fired the club to promotion with 19 goals in the Championship in his very first season. Austin immediately made the step up to the Premier League in the following season and struck as many as 18 goals in his first ever campaign in the top-flight.
With his stocks soaring sky-high, Southampton swooped for the centre-forward in the summer of 2015 but he has never been able to replicate that kind of success at St.Mary’s over the course of his four seasons at the club.
To put things into perspective, Charlie Austin can be labelled as a one-season wonder in the Premier League and he has been nowhere near his best in recent times, meaning that it would be a big risk for any club to sign him. That risk factor could potentially get amplified in case of a newly-promoted club like Aston Villa and the Lions surely need to look at better options in the market if they are really serious about staying up in the top-flight.
Aston Villa currently find themselves short of options up front following the departure of star loanee Tammy Abraham to Chelsea, although the club-record £22.25 million acquisition of Wesley Moraes is likely to have brought a sigh of relief to the fans at Villa Park.
However, one can get the feeling that Villa still need another decent back-up forward in their ranks to ensure that they don’t find themselves in trouble in the Premier League next season in an event of an injury to Moraes.
Charlie Austin, with his wealth of Premier League experience, would certainly be a good understudy to Moraes but Villa should be aware of his waning influence and advancing years.
The 29-year-old offered little at Southampton in the previous campaign and one can get the feeling that a fitter and younger striker would fit the bill better, even if that presents a relatively unproven option at the Premier League level.
To Read More Aston Villa News, Click Here:- Latest Aston Villa News
Aston Villa certainly have the finances to bring in some top-quality players, and while they need to avoid over-spending like Fulham did last summer, the Lions need to demonstrate their ambitions by looking beyond underperforming and mediocre players like Austin.
