VIDEO: What can Ayew bring to Villa if Lorient transfer is completed?

Aston Villa are being heavily linked with Lorient striker Jordan Ayew today, and since so many folks seem to know very little about him, it might be worth watching some film. As with any collection of YouTube highlights, it's worth remembering that these are edited to show the very best of a player, so we aren't getting a full picture.

That said, what we can see of Ayew here presents a striker with incredible ball control and agility. He doesn't seem to be the big, powerful type at all. The sequence starting at about 51 seconds into this video is a perfected version of what we see in here a lot:

The initial control of the ball with the chest, the quick half-turn, and the deft flick of the foot to dsend the ball off the bar and into the net are all great fun to watch. Elsewhere, he seems to be a player who relies on positional sensibility to find himself in a spot to make an impact rather than getting the ball and forcing his way through the defense.

All of this points to a player who may not be a substitute for Christian Benteke, but rather one to take the place of Andi Weimann or Gabby Agbonlahor. I had initially thought that perhaps Tim Sherwood was maybe considering not replacing Benteke with a like-minded player (and he may still be thinking that), but as @nhewis pointed out on twitter, a different approach makes even more sense:

@7500toHolte that's adebayor probably, I think we'll use the rest for a CM and a CB, with Ayew doing a job upfront if Ade is pants

— N (@nhewis) July 24, 2015

Of course, we're just speculating here. There are a lot of "ifs" that need to happen before any of this matters, but it's fun to see something outside of the powerful battering-ram striker being linked to Villa. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!