From Exeter to the Euros: Watkins thriving under the radar for Villa and England | OneFootball

Ollie Watkins has been in fine form for Aston Villa.

Ollie Watkins has grafted his way up from the Conference South to the European Championships. Johnny Nic eulogises over a striker whose fight for the spotlight continues…

Who’s this then? Oliver George Arthur Watkins is a 5’11” Torquay-born, Newton Abbot-raised striker who plays for Aston Villa. He scored for England last week and is an important player in Villa’s push for a European trophy this campaign.

From the age of 10 to 17 he was at Exeter City’s academy, eventually making his first-team debut in 2014 after signing pro-forms for the club. But it wasn’t an easy start for Ollie and he was sent out on loan to Weston-Super-Mare for the second half of the 2014-15 season in the Conference South. He did well, scoring 10 times in 25 games before returning to Exeter City but still struggled to make an impact until the 2016-17 season which saw him scoring 16 times in 52 games and winning the Young Player Of The Year for 2016-17.

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This excellent performance brought him to the attention of Brentford who were ambitiously looking to get out of the Championship and into the top flight. Around six million quid was paid for him. He played for three seasons for the Bees, scoring 49 times in 143 appearances. In 2019-20 his 26 goals helped Brentford to get promoted and there was an understanding that they couldn’t hold onto their biggest asset forever. He won the EFL Championship Player of the Year at which point Villa turned up smelling of money, pushed £30million at Brentford and took Ollie to Villa Park, where he has now been for three and a bit seasons, with 50 goals in 127 appearances to his name.

In 2021 he made his England debut scoring against San Marino. He’s got eight caps and scored his third goal against Australia last week. Were it not for Harry Kane, he’d probably be a regular starter for England with seven goals in 13 appearances for Villa to his name. Of his 135 goals 34 have been game winning goals, which is probably the most important stat on his CV.

Why the love? There can’t be a lot of Torquay-born footballers who have reached the top of the game and Ollie is certainly a player who has got there the hard way. To date he’s got 135 goals in 373 games but has only played roughly a third of those in the top flight. His performances this season suggest he’s one of those players who gets better as he gets older. This is an interesting phenomenon. It is as though the experience of playing season after season seeps into the players’ DNA and he grows into his game, making him better each season.

On October 4 2020, he scored his first Premier League goals, scoring a left-footed strike, a right-footed strike and a header for a perfect hat-trick in a legendary 7-2 home victory over Liverpool. It was the first time in Premier League history that a reigning champion had conceded seven goals in a single match. It was quite the dramatic introduction to the top flight for Ollie.

While now playing for Unai Emery means he’s playing for one of Europe’s top coaches, it has also meant he’s had to develop his game significantly. While playing for Brentford he was perhaps a more traditional centre-forward using physicality and speed to gain an advantage but for Villa he’s scored more goals in less games, again this suggests a player who is developing his game. This season could be his best ever.

There’s no doubt that he’s an impressive physical specimen, but there is a lot more to his game these days as his four assists this season suggests. This season with two scored with his left foot, three with his right and two with his head, it has been a very even performance and one which perhaps indicates his more complete game is coming to the fore.

At 27, traditionally he’d be thought to be entering his peak years but that is probably a couple of years away as the fitness of players improves and their careers get longer, injuries allowing. However, there’s no doubt that this season he’s hit his straps early on. In part this is because of how he is being deployed by Emery, already with three match-winning goals to his name and it was his strike which allowed England to beat Australia.

Three great moments

A match winner against Chelsea…

A devastating hat-trick for Brentford…

It’s not often I feature Exeter City in this column but happy to do so…

Future days? Were it not for the extraordinary Mr H. Kane, Ollie would fairly certainly be England’s major striker and that is reflected in his valuation now up around the £50million mark. He has not had any significant injuries in his career to date and none which have kept him out of games and that is surprising for a player in his 28th year.

He’s just signed another five-year contract at Villa which will take him to the age of 32 in 2028 by which time he will surely have hoped to win at least one cup or European trophy and picked up another raft of caps, including being part of a Euros winning team.

Whereas Kane is that much valued ‘two-players-in-one’ Watkins is more a front-facing, stretch-the-defence striker and certainly isn’t a man-for-man replacement for the Bayern Munich striker, all of which means England would have to play a different sort of game tactically to get the best out of Watkins. There doesn’t seem to be a place for him alongside Kane, so his international appearances may remain few and far between. However, for his club, he can reach for European success backed by a manager who specialises in winning the Europa League. Having lost one and won one so far, it’s still all to play for as Villa face AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

Watkins is in a strange position. He’s one of England’s best strikers and quite provably so. He was picking up £3.9million per year and likely to be on more with his new contract, but he flies a little bit under the radar. He doesn’t make the top-scorer lists and Kane’s shadow for England is so huge that it diminishes everyone else. However, this allows him to work without nearly as much pressure. And in being at Villa, he’s at just the right club. No-one expects them to win the league or even get in the top four. It’s easy to overlook a player, especially one that hasn’t been cut out for stardom from his youth academy days. But we should be under no doubt, Watkins is a superb striker.