Aston Villa spent over 100 million euros on new players in the summer 2024 transfer window and then added a handful of more big names in the winter after thos summer signings failed to improve Villa’s status from a Champions League side to a potential title contender in the Premier League.
In fact, Aston Villa have fallen outside the top four entirely and have been worse off in 2024/25 despite the aggressive reinforcements. And many of those new additions have failed to get a solid foothold in the time.
Among the most prominent is left back Ian Maatsen, who was signed permanently for nearly 45 million euros from Chelsea after enjoying an excellent 2023/24 breakout season on loan at Borussia Dortmund, in which he was one of the standouts in BVB’s return to the Champions League Final.
Maatsen has been an afterthought in the Aston Villa lineup, starting a meager four games in the Premier League this season, leading many to wonder why Villa paid so much money to sign him in the first place.
Donyell Malen, Ian Maatsen are afterthoughts
Former Dutch international and Hamburg, Tottenham, and Real Madrid star attacking midfielder Rafael van der Vaart didn’t mince words, calling Maatsen’s move to the Premier League side a mistake, via Total Villa:
“It’s the same with Donyell Malen. They got him for €40m, but he’s not playing either. They haven’t even registered him for the Champions League.”
Donyell Malen was also a key player for Dortmund last season in the run to the Champions League, but after the breakouts of Karim Adeyemi and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens on the wings this season, the slightly older Dutch winger was viewed as expendable by Dortmund.
Although Aston Villa paid 25 million euros to sign Malen, they also acquired two bigger names on loan in Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio to bolster the attack, leaving Malen to fall by the wayside.
Malen and Maatsen are decent players, and they represent wasteful expenditure from an Aston Villa team that hasn’t looked nearly as well-run in the 2024/25 season.
Van der Vaart and other Dutch pundits have a right to be miffed that two of the country’s best players are toiling away in what should be big seasons for them, and because Aston Villa are not further ahead in achieving their goals, you can’t say they have much of a defense here.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.