Adama Traore to Aston Villa: Tim Sherwood 'delighted' to lure midfielder from Barcelona
Villa complete tenth signing of a busy summer of transfer activity
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Your support makes all the difference.Aston Villa have completed the signing of Adama Traore from Barcelona for a fee in the region of £12m on a five-year contract.
The 19-year-old midfielder joins the Premier League outfit after a long pursuit by Tim Sherwood, the former Tottenham Hotspur manager, who claims he tried to sign Traore at White Hart Lane.
Sherwood said: "I've known him for a couple of years. I tried to see if it was possible to bring him to Tottenham when I was there.
"He is someone I have been tracking for a long time. He has played a lot of games for someone so young because he is physically a man.
"He is a big powerful boy, very quick, dynamic, a maverick type player, you never know what's going to come out next. Those players are very few and far between."
Villa opened their new campaign with a 1-0 victory over newly-promoted Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium last weekend and host Manchester United tonight (Friday) at Villa Park.
Sherwood says Traore will fit in effortlessly alongside the young talent at his disposal in Birmingham and hopes his new signing will be able to carve an identity of his own in the years to come.
"He is not the finished article by any means. He is certainly a player who can help us out now, but for the long term future he is magnificent.
"He is very dynamic. He stays wide, picks the ball up, runs at defenders and doesn't give them a minute's peace.
"I wouldn't like to compare him to any other player, hopefully he'll make his own name for himself and they will want to be the new Adama Traore."
The Villa boss also revealed that he travelled to Barcelona to convince the Spain Under-19 international to join his 'new era' at the Midlands club.
"I went to Barcelona and spoke to the representatives. We made a huge effort to bring him to the club. We showed him this is a great stage for him.
"We recognise he needs developing and that I will give him as much development time as possible. We will give him a lot of work on the training field to improve what he already has."
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