Aston Villa sign a goalkeeper and a left-back in one day, and Emi Martinez’s future is still open

Aston Villa announced two signings on Wednesday, a goalkeeper and a left-back, for a combined 55 million euros before bonuses. Four days before their first Premier League match of the season, that is a lot of business for one afternoon, and both deals point at the same problem: Unai Emery has questions in the two positions he can least afford to leave open.

The goalkeeper Paris nearly signed

Zion Suzuki arrives from Parma on a contract that runs to the summer of 2031. Villa are paying 30 million euros with another 5 million in bonuses, matching the valuation Paris Saint-Germain had agreed before they pulled out of the deal. Villa took the opening that left.

He is 23, born in New Jersey to a Ghanaian father and a Japanese mother, and he kept goal for Japan at this year’s World Cup. When he moved to Parma in 2024 he became the first Japanese goalkeeper to play in Serie A. He is now the first to play in the Premier League, and the first Asian player Aston Villa have signed in their history.

The awkward part is who is already at the club. Emiliano Martinez is 33, has spent the summer being linked with Juventus, and kept goal in the Europa League final with a finger he had broken in the warm-up. He missed the Super Cup defeat to PSG in Salzburg on 12 August because he was still finishing his break after playing the World Cup final for Argentina on 19 July, and he is expected back for the league opener.

Villa have not said Martinez is leaving. They have just spent 30 million euros on a goalkeeper ten years younger who does the same job, with the window open until 1 September.

The left-back gap Villa made themselves

Matteo Ruggeri cost 25 million euros plus 1.5 million in bonuses, and he fills a hole Villa created when they sold Lucas Digne to PSG in July after four seasons in the position. Ruggeri is Italian, 24, and had been at Atletico Madrid for exactly one year, playing 26 La Liga matches and 15 in the Champions League as Atletico reached the semi-finals before Arsenal knocked them out.

Selling him a year after signing him, for roughly what they paid, is not a loss for Atletico. It is also not what a five-year contract is normally for. Villa get a left-back in his prime years for a side that needs width, which is precisely what walked out of the door in July.

A heavier season than the last one

Villa won the Europa League in May, beating Freiburg 3-0 in Istanbul for their first trophy in 30 years. That is why they were in Salzburg last week losing 2-1 to PSG, and why this season is a Champions League season. They also lost Morgan Rogers to Chelsea and Youri Tielemans to Manchester United along the way, so the squad Emery takes into it is not the one that won in Istanbul.

They start at Brighton on Sunday 23 August. Whether Suzuki plays that game or watches Martinez play it is the question Emery has not answered, and the answer will say more about the goalkeeper’s future than the transfer fee does.

Keep up with every deal as the window closes