Leeds United made a serious transfer blunder allowing Aston Villa to seal striker deal: View | OneFootball

FLW take a look back at when Aston Villa beat Leeds United to the signing of Brentford's Ollie Watkins.

Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins was once a transfer target for Leeds United after gaining promotion in the summer of 2020, but Marcelo Bielsa's side instead went for Spanish international forward Rodrigo to support Patrick Bamford in attack.

Following an outstanding campaign with Brentford during the 2019/20 season, Watkins was a man in demand that summer. He finished the season as the Championship's joint-top scorer with 26 goals and was also named Player of the Season.

That same year, Leeds had been battling with the Bees for promotion from the second tier and even beat them to a place inside the top two, but they knew all about the exploits of Watkins first-hand. Bielsa had Bamford leading the line as the centre-forward, who scored 16 times that season, but had been famously wasteful for much of the campaign.

Ultimately, the good form of Watkins was always likely to see him move to the top-flight that summer, even with Brentford missing out in the play-off final to Fulham. His exploits saw him secure a move to Villa, joining the club for a reported £28million, with the 28-year-old since going on to score plenty of goals for Villa during their rise up the league table, culminating in a fourth-placed finish last term.

Ollie Watkins moves to Aston Villa as Leeds swoop for Rodrigo

Villa won promotion back to the Premier League a year earlier than Bielsa and Leeds, seeing off Derby County at Wembley. The Rams and Frank Lampard had beaten the Whites in a dramatic semi-final at Elland Road to secure their spot in the final against Dean Smith.

Leeds had to wait to win the title a year later, giving Villa an extra year of top-flight football to consolidate their place and improve their side. However, despite retaining stars such as Jack Grealish that year, they struggled and were only able to secure safety in the final games of the season with a 17th-placed finish.

It meant that they required big investment for the second summer in a row, beating Leeds to the signing of Watkins in the end. Leeds, meanwhile, would end up breaking their transfer record by bringing Rodrigo to Elland Road from Spanish side Valencia, as they strengthened their squad following promotion from the Championship.

Watkins has since revealed that the West Yorkshire outfit were keen on his services, but ultimately elected to sign Rodrigo instead. The decision appeared, at first, to be a decent one from Leeds. Despite Rodrigo struggling with injury and being ill-suited to the focal point striker role when deployed there, the team thrived in their first season back in the Premier League after 16 years away.

Bamford scored goals for fun as the spearhead of Leeds' attack, and Bielsa-ball translated extremely well to top-flight football. They finished ninth, which was the highest either side had managed to reach in English football since 2011. That's despite Villa having an extra year of preparation.

However, it would be Aston Villa who would have the last laugh in the end. Despite finishing two places below the Whites in 11th, Watkins' form continued into the Premier League. He scored 14 and assisted a further five in 37 league outings, whilst Bamford was only marginally ahead with 17 goals and seven assists from 38 league fixtures.

From there, Watkins continued to develop, and in the meantime, Bamford's injury issues started to get the better of him, and Rodrigo never fit the system at Elland Road. His finishing was more reliable than Bamford's, but he was a second-striker, being shoehorned into the team by Bielsa, Jesse Marsch, and the like.

Watkins and Leeds' trajectories since 2021

It's a reminder in some ways of how short-termist football can be. Leeds looked well-placed to kick on in 2021, and were ahead of Villa in development terms and where the teams had finished that season. However, Leeds find themselves back in the Championship for another year and Villa have secured European football in back-to-back years.

Watkins has been a key component of their rise up the table and one of the catalysts of their success, as well as Unai Emery. However, had things turned out a little differently, then it would certainly have been interesting how Leeds would have used Watkins alongside Bamford had they brought him to Elland Road.

Both strikers have had impressive seasons in their careers - although Watkins has become one of the country's most lethal marksmen since, both in the Premier League and for his country at the European Championships this summer; but they could have proved to be a dangerous prospect in the same side, which could have helped give Bamford a break at times, having seen his body break down persistently with injury issues in recent years.

There may not have been regrets in the moment during the summer of 2021, but given what has happened to Watkins and Bamford since, there will be many regrets about them not signing Watkins. In another reality, Leeds kicked on in 2021/22 and secured a place in Europe, with Villa instead tumbling down the table and eventually back into the Championship instead.

Watkins' goals last season, in particular, were huge. He is one of the hottest strikers in Europe and fired them back into the Champions League for the first time since it was rebranded in 1992, having last played at the level in 1982.

He then went and topped it off by scoring one of the most famous goals in England's international history, with a last-gasp winner against the Dutch to secure a place at the final of the EUROs against Spain. His rise up the footballing pyramid has been incredibly impressive, and is one Leeds will regret not being a part of.