This week’s signing of Pau Torres has been met with universal acclaim from within B6 and afar. The central defender had been much sought after by a range of teams across Europe at different points since he won the Europa League with Villareal and Unai Emery in 2021.
As Ryan McKeown has already written about on here, Pau’s signing means Villa have an upgrade in terms of a passing centre back to support Emery’s preferred style – but it also offers Villa a range of options defensively.
Pictured – Torres with compatriots Emery and Monchi
Born and bred in Villareal, Torres has been capped 23 times for the Spanish national side, scoring once. He is the tenth Spanish national to represent Aston Villa so how does he fit into that lineage of his countrymen?
The first Spaniard to play for Villa was Carlos Cuellar signed from Glasgow Rangers in 2008. The Madrid native had been a huge success for Rangers and his departure caused much consternation north of the border, adding to the sense that English teams could ride roughshod over their Scottish counterparts.
As a centre back Cuellar had won the Scottish Football Writers’ Player of the Year award but initially at Villa, he would be mainly used at right back in part due to the partnership of Curtis Davies and Martin Laursen.
Cuellar was always happy to play anywhere if it helped the team (he was unusually vocal about this in interviews) and he occasionally started ahead of Stephen Warnock at left back.
Pictured – Carlos Cuellar is remembered fondly by Villa fans
Cuellar would make a noteworthy 94 appearances for Villa and was always well received by fans throughout his time at the club. He scored two league goals although I mostly remember his headed goal against Blackburn in an FA Cup third round tie in January 2010.
The most committed of Villa fans will also remember Cuellar scoring the winning penalty as Villa beat Juventus in the 2009 Peace Cup pre season tournament (you’ll never sing that). Ultimately Cuellar was not offered a new contract and departed for Sunderland in 2012.
Next up was Antonio Luna, signed from Sevilla in 2013. Known affectionately by Villa fans as ‘Tony Moon’, the left back scored on his debut in a famous 3-1 win against Arsenal. He would make a further 16 underwhelming appearances for Villa across 2013-14 but never looked likely to last the duration of the three year deal he signed. #
Several abortive loan deals followed before signing permanently with Eibar where he began to rebuild his career. In a detail which made me feel my age, Luna, still only 32 continues to play professionally in Greece.
In 2015 Villa signed Carles Gil from Valencia, a transfer I still look back on with a sense of what might have been. Paul Lambert described his first appearance as “as good a debut as I’ve seen” despite a loss to Liverpool and he started the next game against Bournemouth in the FA Cup. Villa were in the early throes of a run that would take them to Wembley and Gil scored a superlative effort from the edge of the box in a 2-1 win. Gil only sparkled occasionally thereafter however and the diminutive Spaniard never garnered the trust of successive managers.
Pictured – Carles Gil left his promise unfulfilled in B6
In the Summer of 2015, when Villa signed both Adama Traore and Jose Crespo, Villa would have three Spanish players on the books simultaneously, as they joined Gil. Memorably Adama and Gil once combined to stunning effect when a cross from the former was acrobatically volleyed in by the latter away at relegation rival Sunderland in January 2016.
Traore was the definition of enigmatic across eleven appearances for Villa. He failed to score in the league and demonstrated the speed and power we saw later in his career with very little end product. Ill discipline meant he was often out of the squad and it was difficult to justify why Barcelona felt the need to insert a buy back clause in the original deal that took him to Villa Park.
Without fanfare he left for Middlesbrough as Villa began life in the Championship in 2016. Crespo made even less impact – just a single appearance in October 2016 for the left back before heading back to his homeland.
When Villa were promoted back to the Premier League in 2019 there was an apparent transfer policy of quantity over quality, one example of which was the signing of Spanish attacking midfielder Jota from our cross-city rivals. There seemed an irony of signing a player who had been exceptional for Brentford in the Championship but had never seemed to be able to make a step up.
A solitary season – and just 10 league appearances – in claret and blue didn’t exactly change that perception, the high point probably being a goal against Brighton en route to the 2020 Carabao Cup Final. Jota was away to Alaves in September 2020.
In January 2020 Jota was joined by compatriot Borja Baston who made just two appearances for the club. Baston’s main reference point is as an example of some ridiculous transfer decisions that season, although perhaps will be more fondly remembered than Danny Drinkwater. Baston did find relative success elsewhere, still playing for Oviedo where he has 30 goals in 73 appearances.
The signing of Pepe Reina, also in January 2020, was more positive. The former Liverpool, Napoli and Bayern Munich keeper was signed on loan from Milan in response to Tom Heaton’s injury at Burnley.
Reina wouldn’t reach the heights of his earlier career, but the experience and presence he brought to the Villa dressing room undoubtedly played a part in navigating the club through lockdown and then to beat relegation. There were certainly infuriating moments – exhibit A away at Leicester – but also reminders of his prowess, not least against Watford in a must win game at Villa Park.
Pictured – At times Pepe Reina rolled back the years
It wasn’t until Spaniard Unai Emery became manager that we saw another Spanish player arrive in B6. Alex Moreno was signed in January 2023 to fit directly into Emery’s system, built on attacking down the left.
Moreno immediately endeared himself to Villa fans with his driving runs to the bye-line. Emery seemed to alternate between Moreno and Lucas Digne at times, usually on a ‘horses for courses’ basis but it is clear Moreno would have started 23/24 as first choice left back if he hadn’t been injured.
And so now we arrive at Pau Torres. Cleary buoyed by the presence of compatriots and sold the project by them Torres will surely prove to be a greater success than Villa’s previous engagement with Spanish players. You’d wager on him not being the last through the door either.
Heady times to be a Villa fan. UTV.
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