Rumoured Aston Villa Move for Mattia Perin Is a Beautiful Nightmare

A move for the former fabled future of Italian football is beautiful for some, but could be a move riddled with risk.

Follow the writer on Twitter: @FindFoy

_____

Yesterday evening saw Aston Villa run out as 5-1 victors against fellow Midland’s side Walsall, but also saw a number of rumours surface via Italian media sources surrounding Juventus goalkeeper Mattia Perin and a potential move to B6.

Within the past week or so, Perin is alleged to have ‘failed’ a medical at Portuguese side Benfica in the midst of a €15,000,000 transfer. As per our friends at 7500toholte – medicals can often be ‘failed’ for administrative purposes – and are not always regarding a player’s sporting health.

However, there do seem to be issues with the 6ft 4″ goalkeepers injury record. Within the space of three years, the former Genoa stopper has been unlucky with his fitness – rupturing the cruciate ligament in both of his knees and undergoing two operations on his right shoulder.

Tipped to be the future of Italian football before the arrival of Italian youngster Donnarumma arrived on the scene at A.C Milan, Perin looked certain to step into the behemothic hole left by Gianluigi Buffon for The Old Lady and the Azzuri.

In his time at Genoa during the 2017/18 season, where he was always expected to move on to greater things as Il Grifone battled bravely against relegation from Serie A year on year, Perin impressed enough to achieve his move to Juventus for a €12,000,000 initial fee.

He over-performed statistically – expected to concede 48 goals across the season – whilst only conceding 42. He also boasted a strong pass success rate for a goalkeeper, and did not lose a ball that he had left his goal-line to claim.

Last season was a little different however, as the Italian ‘keeper manage a paltry nine appearances for Juventus in Serie A. In a better team, Perin was expected to concede seven goals across the nine appearances against some weaker opposition in the form of Bologna and SPAL, but ended up conceding eight. His last two appearances for either club or country saw I Bianconeri lose embarrassingly to SPAL and Mattia’s former club Genoa.

For fans of virtual football – you’ll know Mattia Perin has been highly rated for a number of years. On this year’s FIFA, the goalkeeper is rated at 84 – which doesn’t mean much in retrospect. However on Football Manger, which hosts a database containing data sourced from their international, on-the-ground scouting network and hosts information on more than 800,000 individual players, Perin has been a must-by for a number of years before his move to Juventus, rapidly turning into one of the most exceptional goalkeepers in the world.

At just 26 years of age, Mattia Perin has, in goalkeeping terms, an age still remaining in football. He’s nowhere near his peak and can continue to develop and grow as a footballer, whilst also impressing at a relatively young age already. He is a goalkeeper with unquestionable quality, but he comes with a risk.

Perin is unable to play until at least December 2019, meaning any possible purchase by Aston Villa is one for the near future. This means that whoever is sat in between the sticks for the club before that time is aware that they are perhaps on borrowed time. There’s also the issue surrounding his ongoing injury worries, that could re-ignite at any time in the future, leaving the club in the lurch.

Depending on the price, he’s worth the punt – but it’s whether Aston Villa are ready to put their days of signing sick-notes behind them. The reward if the a potential pays off in Villa’s favour far into the future is incomparable to the risk – but, with anything in football the unknown is a distasteful beast at times, and could come back to bite like many other signings before this one.