Aston Villa signed “menacing” talent to replace Benteke, but he then cost £825k per goal

Aston Villa were sad to lose Christian Benteke in 2015, however Tim Sherwood thought he had the solution for his exit…

Aston Villa had a smooth summer of preparation for their first full season under Unai Emery’s leadership.

After Steven Gerrard was fired, the Villans signed the Spaniard in October 2022, and it’s safe to say they haven’t looked back.

The team that the former Arsenal manager took over from the legendary former Liverpool player was in 16th place in the Premier League standings when he came, and they were desperate to find a way to improve.

That source was Emery, who led Villa to a seventh-place result and a Europa Conference League berth, enhancing their club’s appeal throughout the transfer window.

Five new faces made Villa Park their home in the summer, including highly-rated and in-demand forward Moussa Diaby, who saw Emery’s project as an interesting place to progress.

With the four-time Europa League winner in charge of the club, Villa’s ability to replenish the side with star quality has been rectified, however business hasn’t always gone so smoothly in the past.

Rewind to 2015, and Tim Sherwood was hoping to steer his squad away from their relegation-threatening campaign of 2014/15, in which the Midlands side finished 17th.

To make matters worse for the Englishman, the club’s star player Christian Benteke departed that summer, yet the manager seemed to have a solution for his exit.

When did Aston Villa sign Rudy Gestede?

Days after the departure of Benteke, it was announced that Villa had signed Championship sharpshooter Rudy Gestede, in a deal worth a reported £6m.

It was a capture to be celebrated by Villa, as the Benin international was in demand, eyed by West Bromwich Albion, Hull City and Crystal Palace, with Eagles having a bid for the forward rejected in the January window, via Sky Sports.

Shining with excitement over his new teammate, Sherwood said he has always “admired” the striker and referred to him as someone who “certainly knows how to find the back of the net.”

The Villans were happy to have acquired a new goal-scoring source in Gestede after bidding farewell to Benteke, but not everyone was won over by his presence.

What was the reaction when Aston Villa signed Rudy Gestede?

Considering that Villa was paid £32.5 million by Liverpool to sell Benteke, former Arsenal great and analyst Paul Merson was unimpressed with the £6 million signing of Gestede to replace the Belgian.

BirminghamLive reported that Merson stated: “You have to bring in someone who is worth at least £12-£15m if you sell someone for £30m like Benteke.”

Although Gestede is a capable player who has performed well, Benteke cannot be replaced by a Championship player.

Although Merson’s worries were valid, there was also optimism that the 26-year-old could replicate Benteke’s success in the second division by moving up to the premier league, despite his arrival from Belgium and his inferior quality.

No one knew the threat of the Belgian forward until the end of his first season at Villa, in which he burst onto the scene by scoring 19 goals in the top-flight after netting just ten in the Jupiler Pro League for Genk the campaign prior.

In contrast to Benteke, Gestede was well-known as a goal scorer in England when he arrived at Villa Park. Sherwood had noticed him after he scored 20 goals in the Championship for Blackburn Rovers in the 2014–15 campaign.

Though only time would tell if the Benin international would live up to such high expectations, there was definitely hope that he could replace the vacuum left by Villa’s talisman, who had scored 49 goals in 101 games for the Midlands team.

Did Rudy Gestede live up to expectation?

Once lauded as “menacing” by Sherwood, Gestede made a good first impression at his new club, scoring on his debut against Bournemouth in a 1-0 win for the Midlands side.

The highs of an opening day goal were short-lived, as the task ahead of the Villans and their new striker was realised, as form was hard to accumulate which saw the manager sacked in October.

Villa were relegated in the 2015/16 campaign, and Gestede’s expectation to fill the boots of Benteke was quickly identified to be impossible, as the Benin international scored just five goals in 32 appearances for the club.

In returning to the Championship, there was again hope that the striker could rediscover his form to fire Villa back to the top flight, considering that he had scored 20 goals in the second tier the season prior to his arrival in the Midlands.

 

As Merson predicted, it wasn’t the case, as the £6m forward scored four goals in 18 appearances, before being offloaded to Middlesbrough in January 2017 after failing miserably to live up to expectation.

What was most remarkable about the sale was that Villa somehow received £6m from Boro for his services, essentially seeing them get a refund on the former hitman whose time at Villa Park was both short-lived and underwhelming.

Despite suffering relegation and losing Benteke, there was something to take from the transfer as it appeared it wasn’t only the Villans that struggled to get Gestede scoring, as he managed to net only eight goals in 71 appearances for Boro.

How much did Rudy Gestede cost Villa in total?

After receiving £32.5m for the services of Benteke, the £6m fee to capture Gestede seemed to be a minimal expense when revising the impact that was hoped he could have on the club.

At Villa, the 26-year-old was handed a five-year contract worth £7.5m, broken down into a salary of £1.5m-per-year which amounted to a weekly wage of £30k, via Capology.

The reading of Gestede’s contract becomes a far more painful read when working out just how much he cost the club during his mere 18-month stay, in which he collected around £2.25m in wages alone.

When adding his £6m transfer fee to the amount he earned in wages, Villa spent a total of £8.25m to accommodate the dud, who after scoring just ten goals, cost the Villans around £825k per goal.

It was never going to be an easy feat to replace the proficiency of Benteke, however Sherwood had a disaster in opting to sign Gestede as the replacement for the high-firing Belgian.