Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has enjoyed a strong start to life at the club since replacing Steven Gerrard at the helm just before the World Cup break.

The Spanish head coach has won seven of his 13 games in charge of the Villans in the Premier League and brought in 1.77 points per game so far, following the 1-1 draw with West Ham United at the weekend.

However, the club are seven points off the top six and a late European charge may be one step too far for Emery after Gerrard won just two of the opening 11 top-flight games.

Next season, the ex-Villarreal manager will have a full summer transfer window and pre-season to prepare his squad to attack the 2023/24 campaign and it will be interesting to see who he brings in to bolster the squad.

One player the club have been linked with is Sevilla centre-forward Youssef En-Nesyri, who is reportedly available for a fee in the region of £44m (€50m) this summer.

Johan Lange must avoid any temptation to add the striker to Emery's squad as the Villa chief could end up repeating the disasterclass he had with the signing of Danny Ings from Southampton.

How did Danny Ings perform at Aston Villa?

In the 2020/21 campaign, the Englishman scored 12 goals in 29 matches for the Saints in the top-flight but his underlying statistics were warning signs that he would not be a fruitful signing for the Villans. He only completed 66% of his passes, missed six 'big chances', and lost 62% of his individual duels.

Lange spent £25m to sign the attacker in the summer of 2021 and the same underlying problems persisted. In 2021/22, Ings scored seven Premier League goals for Villa but also missed six 'big chances', completed 69% of his passes, and lost 63% of his battles in 30 appearances.

He was then sold to West Ham in January of this year for an initial £12m - £13m less than what they paid for him - and En-Nesyri could be a similarly disastrous move.

The Morocco international, who was once dubbed "dangerous" by journalist Josh Bunting, has scored five goals in 11 starts in LaLiga this season, after managing five in 15 last term, and that is a solid return on paper.

However, like Ings, his underlying statistics paint a different picture. The 25-year-old has only completed 66% of his passes, missed a whopping nine 'big chances', and lost 57% of his duels in 2022/23.

The Sevilla gem may have an impressive goal return on first glance but the striker has been profligate in front of goal and not offered much in terms of link-up play or holding the ball up for the team with his physical attributes.

Therefore, En-Nesyri could be Ings 2.0 by coming in for big money and not offering enough in his all-around game to be worth the price tag, which is why Lange must avoid this deal.