Aston Villa fail in bid to tempt striker away from the fourth tier of Spanish football

At this point, I've pretty much resigned myself to Aston Villa doing nothing in this transfer window. Most moves the club could make would be akin to putting some super-glue on the hull of the Titanic, so I get it. But the one place that I genuinely thought could have used some bolstering and could have actually helped Villa potentially avoid relegation was striker. If a move wasn't there, I understand, but goodness do we need a striker.

That said, when you're getting rejected by a striker playing for UP Langreo, a club in Group 2 of the Spanish Tercera División (the fourth tier of Spanish football), perhaps a move was never in the cards. What makes it worse is that this wasn't some no-name Spaniard, but instead was Michu, the striker who scored 20 times in 52 league appearances for Swansea. A play who could have scored for Aston Villa!

Michu says he didn't come because he's still recovering from an injury and wanted "to be honest with myself in terms of my fitness so I turned it down." He's also playing for the club managed by his brother. So that must be nice. And those are decent reasons not to leave. But come on. "Come play in the Premier League, and yes we understand that it might take you a while to be 100% fit but we're okay with that because we need a striker and please don't say no" should be able to clear those minor hurdles.

It didn't. And Aston Villa don't have Michu.

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Postscript: This didn't really fit in the actual story, but it's too good to pass up. Michu's brother sounds like the real supportive type.

"I had a meeting with a person who works for Villa.

He asked ‘How's Michu?' I said he's OK."

Savage.