Borja Baston was one of the more unfortunate Aston Villa signings in recent history, and Dean Smith has opened up on the Spanish striker’s exit
Bought into the club from Swansea, Baston played less than a half of football for Dean Smith’s side – and has now left the club to seek a career elsewhere – little more than a handful of games since joining the club.
In fact, Baston’s games at Villa were two of the saddest this season. He was little more than a bystander after a late mistake by Bjorn Engels robbed Villa of a point against Spurs, and he watched on as Stuart Armstrong emptied a shot into a barren net against Southampton to seal a victory for the Saints.
Truth be told, it wasn’t a brilliant time for Baston at Villa, especially since the heady heights of his Eibar days, where the plucky La Liga side were bouyed by his double digit goalscoring return.
At Villa? Baston managed to play barely twenty minutes, and has now departed.
Despite the exit, Smith is more than confident of his strikeforce that hasn’t yet managed to score since Villa’s reutrn.
Sign up for our Villa newsletter with your email in the box at the top of the page or click here
“We had to decide if we were going to extend his contract or not but I felt with Ally [Samatta], Keinan [Davis] and Indy [Vassilev] there wasn’t likely to be a chance for him to be involved and I didn’t want to stand in his way of getting another club,” said Smith ahead of this weekend’s Liverpool tie.
Still, out of those trio Villa have gotten more goals, minutes and action – and there is no news yet of Baston’s destination.
