As we heard yesterday, Aleksandar Tonev was in Birmingham for a physical before he was to complete his transfer to Aston Villa. A photo that I first saw tweeted by Maciej Zielinski confirms what we were all expecting: Tonev is here to stay with Aston Villa:
Looks like first moments of Tonev in Aston Villa shirt twitter.com/mac_zielinski/…
— Maciej Zielinski (@mac_zielinski) June 7, 2013
With Tonev in the picture is Stiliyan Petrov. I imagine Petrov's presence on the club proved to be a lure to Tonev, who is a winger for the Bulgarian national team.
Assuming yesterday's numbers are correct, Villa have paid Polish club Lech Poznan approximately £2.7 million pounds for the services of Tonev, with a clause for £425,000 if Tonev plays enough matches.
And given Aston Villa's startling lack of wing play last season, I imagine that we'll be seeing a lot of Tonev. In the clips I've been able to find, he's got pace and he has a good instinct for goal, so he should be a valuable asset. If nothing else, it'll be nice to have someone other than Christian Benteke working the ball in from the outside.
Welcome to the club, Tonev!
UPDATE:
Aston Villa have confirmed the signing here, and also in this tweet:
Big Villa welcome to Aleksandar Tonev. bit.ly/12wk6Xg #WelcomeTonev #AVFC
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) June 7, 2013