Villa search for a new striker - but why not Cameron Archer?

"Get up off the pavement. Brush the dirt up off my psyche, psyche, psyche." - Earl Sweatshirt

I don't want to double up on the quotes here, but being a young footballer is bloody hard. You get hit hard, and then you've got to pick yourself up and shine. Fecking well shine like a meteor burning through the atmosphere.

Think of all the players that did well for Villa in the FA Cup against Liverpool last year. Maybe half of them will be lucky enough to make a single Premier League appearance for the Villa. Ideally, the entire team will be lucky enough to earn a living from the beautiful game in general.

A lot of it is luck, to be blunt. You've got to have the right ingredients - and it has to show at the right time. The manager has to trust you. You've got to show your capabilities when the time comes. So much has to go right for a young footballer. The pathway not only has to be carved, but the player has to deliver when they step foot on it.

In a fluid game like football, there's not often the time for patience.

That didn't rally matter for Cameron Archer though, who took his shot. Didn't he just?

Time for Archer - and a bit more insider info on Carney Chukwuemeka.

The rise of Cameron Archer

You could've been forgiven for forgetting about the existence of Cameron Archer prior to Villa's little League Cup run last season.

Before Barrow, and before Chelsea, Archer was just another in a long line of striking talent. Louie Barry and Brad Young highlighted a youthful team and stole headlines while playing for Villa against Liverpool in the FA Cup, and then in the FA Youth Cup (Archer was slightly too old to qualify for involvement in the latter alongside Jaden Philogene). While Louie Barry had his 'remember the name' moment in the lights, Archer was plodding away at Solihull Moors. While Brad Young was pirouetting in the box against Liverpool, Archer was watching it on TV.

Now he's not just one of the pack, and now he's not able to steal the headlines.

Why? Because Cameron Archer is the headline, and the leader of the pack.

It's absolutely not a competition about 'who is the best young striker' at the club. Each and everyone of the talents at the club has proven themselves in one way or another, but when it was needed - Archer shined.

Not for the sake of Villa, not even for the sake of his loan club Preston, but for himself.

Nobody needed Archer's goals more than Archer.

In the new age of youth development at Villa, players of 20 are seemingly viewed as ancient beings in the U21/23 teams. I mean, Villa's CEO Christian Purslow pretty much confirmed this at a Trust AGM a few years back:

"If there are 21,22,23 year-olds playing for the U23s then our youth development system has failed. We want 16,17,18 year-olds playing for the U23s"

Perhaps a little harsh, but correct in the view of academy talent being a conveyor belt of depth for the first-team. Looking at that Purslow quote, Archer would have just weeks and days left to find a way to make an impact this season. That's pressure.

Without his form last season, Archer is looking at perhaps one game to make his impact - the first League Cup game of 2022/2023 if not pre-season.

That's why his performance against Barrow last year was so important, and why his goal against Chelsea rocked more than just the away stand. It showed that Cameron Archer was ready to push the first-team.

The icing on the cake was a fantastic loan spell in the Championship. Archer was a runaway talent for PNE, and performed incredibly well.

How well?

WELL.

Archer played eighteen 90-mins of football for Preston, scoring seven goals at a clip of 0.39 goals per game. Expand that over a full season of Championship football and you get 18 goals.

For a team that finished 13th in the Championship, that's not bad at all, and for a while during his arrival in Lancashire he was scoring at the exact same pace as Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ben Brereton-Diaz.

18 goals would put him 6th in last season's goals table, and his 0.39 scoring rate is better than anyone his age at the start of last season - and slightly better than Forest wonderkid Brennan Johnson. A full season at Preston would've likely positioned him alongside the better Championship strikers.

That would be alongside his decent performances in England's youth teams. He'd be the type of striker you'd actually want Villa to buy to provide a kick up the arse for Ings and Watkins, actually. He fits the profile.

In terms of a role for Cameron Archer in the first-team, it's right there. Villa want a new striker according to the John Percy and depending on the forward purchased, it could be a waste of time for  them spend big now without seeing what Archer could provide.

At Villa, you've got a striking quartet that offer a few different things. Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings can both player in a number of varying positions across the frontline including out-wide for the former and behind the striker for the latter. Keinan Davis offers a change of pace when fit, and Cameron Archer is as close to a 'classic 9' as Villa have had in a number of years. There's enough there, right now, to accommodate for plenty of situations in the early stages of the season. Moving forward with Ollie Watkins, Danny Ings, Cameron Archer and Keinan Davis seems like a favourable situation in the present day.

Deadline day may present an option to swoop in, and there's always January. If Stevie G can't get it done with Danny Ings alone, then that in of itself is its own problem. As it stands, there's plenty of promise in Villa's striking corps, they just need to deliver before the chequebook comes out.

Well, it already has done. Archer has been given an extension to his contract, signing a new five-year deal that adds two extra years to the deal he signed eight months ago. He is rated highly and raring to go.

From the fringes looking out at a wasteland of Midlands youth talent to a first-team role at Villa, you cannot deny that Archer has changed the outlook of his entire career in a single season of football.

Bless him.

More on Carney

I'll always try to get information to you - so here's some.

Barcelona would've had Carney Chukwuemeka if not for Chelsea's intervention - and AC Milan would've had him if they met Villa's valuation, but they were blown out of the water by Klarnaloana.

The Catalan giants, who are trying to Bright House (shite house?) their way back to footballing supremacy by simply adding more zeroes to their non-existent bank balance, heightened their interest after Carney's performances for England in the U19 Euros. That put him on the radar of the most important people in football - the ones with the chequebooks.

Interestingly, this was the exact moment that clubs such as Chelsea and Milan listened to their scouts who had been beating the drum for him for a while.

He was going this window, and to a 'superclub', that is now clear. That contract was not going to run down.

As I said, clubs have had their eye on him for a long time, but even the most talented scouts in the world couldn't get suits to listen to them about Chukwuemeka.

The lesson? Clubs should listen to their scouting teams. If they did, they'd have had him a long time ago.

However, it's for the benefit of Villa that they were ignorant. That's it now, he's a Chelsea player and not a Villan. Seeya Chuk!

On a personal note...

I wanted to thank everyone who subscribed. Again.

I didn't want to set targets. This isn't a professional project. I write for fun, and to sharpen my skills. I love speaking to Villa fans and I love that you've subscribed to this newsletter.

I also love that a number of you have taken the time to write 1000s of words back to me by replying to the newsletter. It's a monitored inbox! Feel free to reply.

Anyway, I would've liked 50 subscribers by September and maybe 100 by 2023.

We've sextupled my initial target and trebled my secondary one, and I've only done one of these. That has shocked me. Shit me up.

Thank you so much. If you like these, please share them around on forums and social media and twitter etc etc. I truly want to deliver great writing to you, and I can only hope you enjoy these.

Peace and love and UTFV.

Spare Tickets

Finally, some quick links to things non-Villa around the web that you might like. Rene Maric is an interesting character, and he'll try to make his mark in the Premier League with Leeds United - the article below is fantastic.

Also, my good mate Jon Mackenzie spoke about CreditCardloana Barcelona's finances on the ever-excellent Tifo football.

See you after Bournemouth.

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