For the Magpies, the losses of Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali are bound to hurt, and if Bruno Guimaraes also moves on, as has been rumoured, they'll start the season on the back foot.

Villa need more bodies to cope with extra demands

Unai Emery and Villa appear to be going in the opposite direction both on and off the pitch, as they ready themselves for another tough domestic campaign, as well as the Champions League assignments that are a reward for their Premier League finish last season.

Clearly then, the Villans are going to need enough squad players of a sufficient level to be able to aim for success in both competitions and the domestic cups to boot.

To that end, Emery is using his knowledge of Spanish football and his connection to one of his old clubs, Sevilla, to look at a player who is as adept at playing on the wing as he is in an attacking midfield position.

Ruben Vargas hasn't yet returned to Sevilla after helping Switzerland to their best showing at a World Cup in 72 years.

Vargas was a Swiss hero at the World Cup

The 27-year-old scored two goals and provided one assist in his country's matches, as well as firing home the penalty which sent the Swiss into the quarter-finals.

Rated at somewhere between €12m-€15m before the tournament, though Sevilla won't stand in Vargas' way if another club comes in for him, nor do they apparently want to do business with any potential buyers who offer less than €20m for the player's services.

That's quite the uplift in financial terms, but one can't really blame the Andalusians for trying to seize the opportunity.

Newcastle are also apparently keeping abreast of developments, but it's difficult to see any player wanting to join a club that has lost its best exponents and can't offer European football, at least for another 12 months.

Winger needs to score more

Unless, of course, the player's motivation is purely financial, in which case it's highly likely that Emery wouldn't want to recruit someone with that type of attitude anyway.

In any event, do Vargas' numbers across 2025/26 align with his club's new valuation of him, or is it simply a case of striking while the iron's hot to maximise his value?

Across all competitions last season, the Swiss made 25 appearances, scoring three goals and providing six assists.

A one-in-four output in terms of his assists is a reasonable enough return, though one could certainly argue that he could do better than only scoring once in every eight games, even taking into account that goals aren't his primary role.

How hard does Vargas work?

Emery is known to be a stickler for getting the maximum out of all of his players, so working hard is a prerequisite. Vargas, therefore, needs to do a little bit of work on how involved he gets in the game.

In all competitions for Sevilla in 25/26, he only contested 235 one-on-one duels, fewer than 19 of his teammates. His winning of 112 was also on the low side, and a 47.66% success rate was actually one of the worst in the entire squad.

It doesn't really get any better for the player if one factors in his pass completion stats.

Just 770 attempted passes were again down the lower end of squad output, and with 563 completed for a 73.12% success, only Akor Adams, Orjan Nyland and Lucas Ocampos ended the campaign with a lower pass completion percentage.

41 chances created help redeem him a little, and a 73.08% success rate when tackling should also be seen as a plus point.

Battling qualities a redeeming feature

Though he did only attempt 26 tackles in total last season (winning 19 of them), one could argue that his success in this metric is misleading, though the counter-argument that, as an attacking midfielder-cum-winger he doesn't always need to get involved in that side of the game, is perfectly legitimate.

It's perhaps those battling qualities that have piqued Emery's interest, as he'll almost certainly be able to improve the player in those other areas.

If Vargas hasn't got the desire and fight in the first place, however, then there's little for any manager to work with, but as he's shown a tigerish side to his game, that should hold him in good stead if Villa are able to push the transfer through in the coming days.

Rubén Vargas

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