Ollie Watkins ready for desert football in a highly paid contract with Al-Hilal – leaving Aston Villa in transfer worth £51m

The English striker has wanted to be paid better than he has now, and then Saudio-Arabia is the place to go, if you don’t care about playing football at a high level. Ollie Watkins and the finance department at Aston Villa have chosen the money to that extent, which has annoyed manager Unai Emery.

Aston Villa have lost yet another of their stars – this time England striker Ollie Watkins, who is now ready for Saudi Arabian Al-Hilal.

Read: Tobias Gulliksen on his way back to Norway

The start to the season has been horrendous for Aston Villa, but it’s hard to imagine anything else when the likes of Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa and Youri Tielemans have been sold. Aston Villa have the hang of the game in the second round of the Premier League, on Monday they host reigning champions Arsenal at Villa Park.

The 30-year-old joined Villa from Brentford in 2020 for a club-record £28 million – and in six impressive years became the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in the Premier League. He leaves Villa Park with 108 goals in all competitions – and contributed greatly to the club’s victory in the Conference League final last year.

Unai Emery has worked wonders at Villa Park and has Champions League football in store – but Watkins is just the latest in a long line of players to leave the club this summer.

Read: Casper Tengstedt ready for new club – three years after Rosenborg “cashed in”

Aston Villa writes in connection with the sale of Ollie Watkins:

Aston Villa can confirm that Ollie Watkins has completed a permanent transfer to Al-Hilal.

Signed by Dean Smith in 2020, Watkins reached double digits in each of his six seasons at Villa Park – leaving the club as our all-time leading Premier League goalscorer, with a total of 91 league goals.

He was also the first player in modern times to pass 100 goals in the claret and blue – and reached his anniversary goal against Bologna last season.

During his time at Villa Park, he has also become an England international and represented the Three Lions in two major championships.

With the ability to score goals in all variations, a relentless finishing ability – combined with a selfless effort for the good of the team – Watkins leaves Villa after being a key piece in our UEFA Europa League triumph.

He goes with everyone in the club with his warmest wishes for the future.
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