Aston Villa's transfer strategy has been on point in recent years, with Unai Emery's signings paying dividends for the fast-rising Premier League.
The sharp-witted tactician has also lifted many of the existing talents to new heights, with John McGinn, Douglas Luiz and Leon Bailey a few of the main figures in Villa's rise, vital in the fight for top four, perched fourth with two games to go, seven points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur.
But none have been more resounding in their success than Ollie Watkins, who has been described as "virtually unplayable" by The Athletic's Jacob Tanswell.
He might just be the outfit's top performer of 2023/24, but he's not the highest earner, albeit earning a pretty penny – with loanee Clement Lenglet proving to be a rare blunder in the sharp strategy.
Why Aston Villa signed Clement Lenglet
Emery was determined to strengthen Villa's defensive accord last summer and thus moved to sign Pau Torres from his former club Villarreal for an initial £33m fee.
But disaster struck and rearguard mainstay Tyrone Mings sustained a significant knee injury in Aston Villa's Premier League opener against Newcastle United last August.
As such, further cover was needed given Villa had qualified for the Europa Conference League, and so Lenglet was landed on a one-year loan deal from Barcelona.
The 28-year-old had failed to impress on loan with Tottenham Hotspur the season before, with journalist Jonathan Johnson branding him "a complete & utter liability of a defender".
But Villa needed support and he fit the system – has it paid off?
Clement Lenglet's season in numbers
Lenglet has started 13 Premier League fixtures this season but he's fallen to defeat on five occasions, shipping 25 goals. Conversely, when the France international has remained on the sidelines, the Lions have lost only three of 19 league games, conceding 19 goals.
1.
Boubacar Kamara
£150k-per-week
1.
Clement Lenglet
£150k-per-week
1.
Youri Tielemans
£150k-per-week
4.
Ollie Watkins
£130k-per-week
4.
Moussa Diaby
£130k-per-week
The biggest problem is that Lenglet pockets exorbitant earnings in the Midlands, perched alongside midfield stars Boubacar Kamara and Youri Tielemans as the club's joint-top-paid player at £150k per week.
The fact that he's outearning the likes of Watkins and Moussa Diaby, the latter of whom joined from Bayer Leverkusen in a club-record £52m deal last summer and has posted ten goals and eight assists for his team, is also of concern.
The truth of it is that Lenglet is a decent defender, with a flowing passing game and an inborn athletic quality that allows him to push play forward – ranking among the top 1% of centre-backs across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for progressive carries per 90 (as per FBref) to hammer this point home.
But he's consistently failed to break from the periphery and that's despite Mings remaining sidelined for the entirety of the campaign. The Frenchman's hardly helped by Tanswell noting that he's run "into trouble" on different occasions.
Lenglet's second year on loan in England looks set to end with a nonchalant shrug. He's not been terrible, but then he's not had much time to prove himself from the outset in the Premier League.
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