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The signing of Pau Torres represents great business for Aston Villa – he is only 26, he’s left-sided, and he’s only costing them £35m. But the move also represents a huge challenge for Unai Emery.
It was Emery, when he was at Villarreal, who helped established Torres as Spain’s first choice centre-back under Luis Enrique. Since Emery left, Torres has slipped out the national squad.
The most talented centre-back to emerge in Spain since Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique, began to stagnate a bit last season – the queue of suitors diminished and so did the giant strides he made as a young player.
Emery will know all about the potential. Sporting Director Monchi will also know exactly what former Sevilla defender Diego Carlos needs to have alongside him – if it does end up being the plan to pair the two (Tyrone Mings, certainly better in the air than both of them, will have other ideas).
But both Emery and Monchi will be aware that Torres will need to improve on certain areas of his game if he is to acclimatize to the Premier League and fulfill his huge potential.
His greatest attribute is his ability to bring the ball out from the back. His pass completion rate was good for Villarreal and the numbers were not built on sideways balls to his central defensive partner, he was asked to be incisive and pass through the opposition’s lines.
If he progresses well under Emery then he could end up giving Villa something of what John Stones gives Manchester City.
His willingness to play out will be targeted by teams but playing for Luis Enrique with the national side he showed he could play out under pressure.
His recovery pace is good too. One of his early partners in the Spain team was Ramos who loves a forward foray leaving space behind him that can be exposed if the team lose possession. Torres was quick and alert enough to deal with that.
He had the same situation under another ball-playing central defensive partner in Eric Garcia. Alongside Carlos or Mings – assuming Ezri Konsa moves to right-back – it is unlikely to be an issue.
But covering the attacking runs of his left back will be, and that’s another well-developed trait to his game.
Spain always play with an offensive player down that flank and he will be able to cover the runs of Alex Moreno.
The facets that will most need to be developed are his aerial game and his aggression. The second should not be a problem.
He is a powerful athlete he will soon grow accustomed to the subtle difference in refereeing between Spain and England and the way a more permissive match official makes for more physical and combatant duels. Likewise in the air he will have to improve, but standing at 6ft 3ins there is no reason why he won’t.
None of this might be enough to convince skeptical Villa fans who are wondering why no one in Spain snapped him up at such a good price. Barcelona might have been interested but are restricted to free transfers and so preferred Athletic Bilbao’s Iñigo Martinez who had run his contract down. Madrid don’t need centre-backs.
As for the apparent waning interest from Liverpool and Manchester United – it will perhaps have something to do with that tailing off of development. But in part, it was the fact that he did not move when it was first mooted that has stopped him growing as a player.
Torres spoke to Mail Sport in late 2021, a couple of months after his faultless displays in Europe had landed Villarreal their first trophy – the Europa League – and made him the target for big clubs in England.
He wanted to stay and play for his hometown side for the first time ever in the Champions League. He is the first Villarreal-born player to play European football for the club.
‘For me it was a dream come true to play in the competition with the club of my life,’ he said. That interview took place just as Emery was turning down Newcastle.
The coach stayed for similar reasons – they had both got Villarreal into this position and they wanted to experience it. And for Torres there was that added pull of responsibility that representing his own family and friends brings – he had felt it when taking the penalty in the shoot-out in the Europa League final against Manchester United.
‘I couldn’t miss,’ he said. ‘I am the only one from the town and there were lots of people in the stand that I knew.’
It was noticeable during his time at the club that while the rest of the squad lived in the surrounding cities or coastal towns Torres stayed in Villarreal, even buying a property in the small town of just 50,000 people.
All that was admirable and it went well the following season when Villarreal reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
But last season, when Emery eventually moved on, it was a reminder that advancing his career probably meant leaving. The romance of his story was no longer compensation for the way his development had been stunted costing him his place in the Spain team.
Now he is back with his old boss and if they can manage to pick up where they left off the last time they were together, Pau will soon be back in the Spain team, and Unai will be guiding Villa to a trophy.
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