Goodbye Mbwana Samatta, we barely knew you.

The first Tanzanian to ever play in the Premier League came and went before we had time to even gauge a proper opinion on him, and while Dean Smith won’t be too disappointed to see the striker leave on an initial loan that will become permanent for £5.5m next summer, it should be a bit of an eye-opener for the men in charge of transfers.

Samatta was signed in January to fill in up top after Wesley Moraes was ruled out for the remainder of the season with a serious injury, but he didn’t provide the firepower needed, struggling to bed into the squad, and netting just once in 14 league appearances.

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Of course, this could all have been avoided had the club signed an adequate backup in the summer who had time to gel with the squad and get to grips with how the manager wanted to play.

Top sides make sure to have two players able to play in every position so that they’re not overly-hampered by injury problems, but even though they spent over £100m last summer, Villa were caught short due to injuries.

Fortunately, it didn’t lead to their relegation, and the signing of Ollie Watkins has made sure that they have two attackers ready to fire this term, but going forward the club need to make sure that they don’t make the same mistake again.

Samatta won’t be remembered at Villa Park in years to come, but the people in charge of recruitment at the club must keep this saga in the back of their mind when they are plotting how to build the squad going forward, making sure that every role has a backup or rotation option able to step in if injury or suspension plagues the starting XI.

Villa shouldn’t beat themselves up over Samatta’s failings, but they need to learn their lesson from this one.