Gregg Evans has revealed that Aston Villa came close to signing Joe Gomez and Benjamin Pavard during the 2015/16 season, on The Athletic.
The pair now play for Liverpool and Bayern Munich respectively, but could easily have been plying their trade at Villa Park, had things turned out a bit differently.
Evans tweeted about the article, which has got plenty of Villa fans talking about missing out on the pair of defenders.
The full story @TheAthletic of how #AVFC nearly signed Joe Gomez and Benjamin Pavard
– Villa offered Gomez more money but he chose #LFC
– Pavard was available for less than £1m and even watched a game at VP!
Since then:
Gomez (won CL)
Pavard (won WC)https://t.co/aaG5hf3KSd— Gregg Evans (@greggevans40) March 25, 2020
Looking at the respective players’ records, it is pretty clear to see why Villa fans would be disappointed about missing out on them.
Gomez has played 100 times for Liverpool, and has a Champions League, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup to his name.
Meanwhile, Pavard joined Bayern Munich from Stuttgart in the summer for £31.4m and has also won the World Cup with France.
Are we not depressed enough
— No Context Aston Villa (@NoContextAVFC_) March 25, 2020
Story of our lives, the class players we ‘almost’ signed
— villarich (@villarich1982) March 25, 2020
Times are miserable enough than to read this
— Meaks (@Richard_Meakin) March 25, 2020
This makes me sad
— Joshh (@BsportJoshh) March 25, 2020
That should lighten the mood, Gregg. Cheers
— Sammy (@SammyAV14) March 25, 2020
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However, not everyone is so upset about Gregg’s admission, feeling that things wouldn’t have turned out well anyway.
At the time, Gomez was at Charlton Athletic and Pavard was plying his trade for Lille, so there will have been no guarantee of success for either of them.
When looking at Villa’s defence this season after various signings being made, who have conceded the most goals in the league with 56, the scepticism is understandable.
Yeah, we would’ve turned Gomez into the next James Bree and Bruce would’ve got rid of Pavard like he did Amavi.
— .ten (@LH__ten) March 25, 2020
Irrelevant… you know for a fact that they’d have turned out as duds/flopped as soon as they hit our wage bill! Just how it works at the villa ♂️
— Simon (@sim1874) March 25, 2020
Meanwhile, Villa fans have been reacting to their links with a Jack Grealishesque star.