{"id":52995,"date":"2025-08-08T15:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T15:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/52995\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T15:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T15:50:17","slug":"how-good-is-new-villa-striker-evann-guessand-potential-ollie-watkins-replacement-set-to-join","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/52995\/","title":{"rendered":"How good is new Villa striker Evann Guessand? Potential Ollie Watkins replacement set to join"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u20ac30m initial fee\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

\n \u00a9IMAGO\n <\/p>\n

Aston Villa<\/a>\u00a0have completed their first major singing of the summer window with the arrival of striker Evann Guessand<\/a> from Nice<\/a>. According to Fabrizio Romano, the 24-year-old talent made the move to Villa Park in a deal worth \u20ac30 million, plus an additional \u20ac5m in add-ons after signing a five-year deal with the club. Should the fee reach \u20ac35m, it will make the Ligue 1 talisman the club\u2019s fifth most expensive signing ever, overtaking Ollie Watkins<\/a>\u2019 \u20ac34m move from Brentford in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Rumour<\/p>\n

\"Evann <\/p>\n

E. Guessand<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"OGC <\/p>\n

Centre-Forward <\/p>\n

OGC Nice <\/p>\n

\"OGC <\/p>\n

?<\/p>\n

\"Aston <\/p>\n

Aston Villa <\/p>\n

Ligue 1 <\/p>\n

Premier League <\/p>\n

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Indeed, despite spending \u20ac439m in the previous three seasons on new players, Guessand looks set to be the only major addition to Unai Emery\u2019s<\/a> side, alongside \u20ac7m signing Yasin \u00d6zcan from Kasimpasa. As such, fans of the Premier League club will be clamouring to know more about their new star striker. Is he ready to make the step up to the English top-flight? Is he potentially a replacement to Watkins? Let\u2019s find out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nHow good is Evann Guessand?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guessand is a towering forward who came through Nice\u2019s youth academy and recently cemented his spot in the club\u2019s first team. After loan spells at Lausanne-Sport<\/a> in Switzerland and then fellow French side Nantes<\/a>, the Ajaccio-born centre forward only really broke into Nice\u2019s first team last season. And that\u2019s where Villa would have undoubtedly taken notice of his talents as a player that could score and create goals in equal measure. However, unlike most Ligue 1 talents that make the move to the Premier League, Guessand took a little longer to find his footing at senior level, having just turned 24 at the end of what would be considered his breakthrough campaign in France.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite that, Transfermarkt Ligue 1 expert Ronan Caroff, doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s too big of an issue and shouldn\u2019t trouble Villa fans. \u201cIt’s great to see players blossom at an “older” age compared to some 17-18 year olds already having so much pressure on them,\u201d noted Caroff. \u201cHis playing time grew in 2023\/24, but he was still behind Terem Moffi and Ga\u00ebtan Laborde in the pecking order. His relatively new scoring record then isn’t too concerning, as previous manager Francesco Farioli’s<\/a> tactics were notorious for focusing on defence rather than offense. With new coach Franck Haise<\/a>, who arrived last summer, plus the injury of Moffi and the flop that was Youssoufa Moukoko, Guessand finally got a chance to be a clear starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Indeed, Guessand certainly did take his shot. After picking up just five goals and assists in 30 league appearances for Nantes in the 2022\/23 season and then a relatively low return of 10 goals and assists in 34 Ligue 1 games the following campaign for Nice, Guessand then suddenly burst into action last season with 12 goals and nine assists for his club in 33 appearances – averaging a very impressive average of 0.74 goal contributions per 90. And it\u2019s the player\u2019s ability to score and assist in almost equal measure, that may lead to some Villa fans wondering whether their new signing is being lined up to replace their current talisman.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIs Evann Guessand a replacement for Ollie Watkins?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the course of his time at Nice, Guessand happily played on the left and right wings, as well as sometimes playing as a second striker when he wasn\u2019t tasked with being a centre forward. And when asked about his style of play in the French top-flight, Caroff certainly describes a player that may draw comparisons to Villa\u2019s own Watkins. \u201cHis size could make him seem like a target man, but he’s proven to be more dynamic than that and has been used in all attacking positions throughout his career,\u201d noted the Ligue 1 expert. \u201cHe can play as a great assist creator on the wing but also brings a lot of speed, power and technical skill to play across the front three.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Watkins<\/p>\n

While Guessand is perhaps better in the air due to his size and even possibly a better dribbler than Watkins due to his speed, he shares the Villa forward\u2019s passion for scoring goals as well as a clear ability to set up goals for his team mates. Over the course of his time at Nice, the 24-year-old talent averaged 0.28 assists per 90 minutes of league football. Which, surprisingly, comes in at slightly more than Watkins\u2019 average of 0.21 assists per 90 in the Premier League. However, it remains to be seen whether Guessand can make the step up to the English top-flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne could say that after only one full season as a key player for his boyhood club it’s a bit soon,\u201d noted Caroff, when asked if Villa\u2019s new striker was ready for the Premier League, \u201cBut with his stock at its highest right now and a long enough contract in Nice, it might be the ideal moment for him to move. And when we consider that he turned down a big-money move to Neom SC in Saudi Arabia, it’s great that he put an opportunity to test himself at the highest level above simply making more money.\u201d Whether Guessand can make the step up at Villa this season or indeed replace Watkins remains to be seen, but early signs suggest that the English club have picked up a player that\u2019s hungry to make up for lost time and prove himself at his new club.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u20ac30m initial fee\u00a0 \u00a9IMAGO Aston Villa\u00a0have completed their first major singing of the summer window with the arrival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2604,29267,29266,29265,29268,29269,59,29263,29264,11262,221,101,56,2947,54,55],"class_list":["post-52995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aston-villa","tag-evann-guessand","tag-fc-lausanne-sport","tag-fc-nantes","tag-francesco-farioli","tag-franck-haise","tag-gb","tag-ligue-1","tag-ogc-nice","tag-ollie-watkins","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-unai-emery","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}