The summer transfer window officially opened for business earlier this month and Aston Villa have made one signing ahead of the 2023/24 campaign so far.
Youri Tielemans is set to join on a free transfer from Leicester City and Unai Emery could be looking to make further additions to his side to make the most of the lure of European football.
A seventh-placed Premier League finish last season ensured that the club will be playing Europa Conference League football next term and they must use that to their advantage to tempt top-quality players into making the switch to Villa Park.
Juventus attacker Federico Chiesa is a reported €60m (£51m) transfer target for the Villans this summer and Emery could land a big upgrade on Emi Buendia by securing the Italy international's services in the coming weeks.
What is Federico Chiesa's style of play?
Since arriving at the club from Norwich for £38m in 2021, Buendia has struggled to provide consistent quality in the final third. The Argentine scored four goals and provided six assists in 35 Premier League matches in his first campaign with Villa before his return of five goals and two assists in 38 outings in 22/23.
He has produced 0.07 assists per 90 over the last 365 days in the Men's Big Five Leagues which places him among the bottom 13% of his positional peers in those competitions.
Chiesa, on the other hand, has recorded 0.42 assists per 90 for Juventus in the Men's Big Five Leagues and European competitions over the last 365 days, ranking the Italian dynamo in the top 4% of players in his position.
This suggests that the 25-year-old could offer more creativity from an attacking midfield or wide position than Buendia, as he has provided his teammates with assists far more frequently than the Villa magician.
The Old Lady wizard's form in the Serie A prior to his ACL injury also indicates that the potential is there for him to be a greater goal threat than the former Canaries star.
Chiesa, who former teammate Gianluigi Buffon once lauded as "impossible to stop", averaged a Sofascore rating of 7.19 and chipped in with nine goals and nine assists in 33 league outings in 20/21, showing that the £153k-per-week hotshot has the quality to make telling contributions in the final third with regularity.
No Villans midfielder managed more than six goals or seven league assists last term while Buendia has not averaged a Sofascore rating higher than 6.95 in the Premier League since joining the club.
Douglas Luiz (7.10) was also the only player in the squad with a Sofascore rating higher than 6.99, meaning that Chiesa could come in as one of the top performers on the roster if he can recapture his previous form.
This, therefore, suggests that Emery would be improving his attacking options in the middle of the park by convincing the Italian marksman to sign for his team.
