Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp has defended striker Wesley after his grabbed his first goals for Aston Villa at the weekend.
Redknapp, who had previously come to the defence of the striker, revealed in his column for the Mail that the doubters have been proven wrong of the striker, and that people are way too quick to judge new signings before they are able to properly get going.
The former Spurs and Liverpool midfielder said:
I’m sick of seeing strikers written off after one or two outings. We need to give them time. Back in the day, we would wait 10 games to judge a player properly. That’s why I’m glad two strikers in particular showed what they are about this weekend to silence the critics.
One was Aston Villa’s Wesley, a £22million buy from Bruges, the other West Ham’s Sebastien Haller. a £45m purchase from Eintracht Frankfurt. Neither had played in the Premier League but both led the line and scored.
Against Everton on Friday, Wesley made a well-timed run behind the back line before having the composure to slide a shot beyond Jordan Pickford. Haller scored twice at Watford on Saturday, one a tap-in, the other an overhead kick.
They did their jobs and led their teams to their first wins of the season. Now let’s get off their backs and see how they progress.
The Brazilian, who had struggled in his first two outings for Villa, is now finally up and running for Dean Smith’s side and will hope to kick on.
Read Aston Villa’s verdict
Redknapp certainly talks a lot of sense here.
It seems that everyone expects players to come in and hit the ground running from the first minute now, which is simply not the case.
It will always take time for players to adapt to the division, and Wesley has shown against Everton that he can score in this league.
Yes, he can improve. But there are only a few cases where players don’t need to improve.
His positioning was a concern, with him being offside way too many times, but this will get better with time.
He’s bagged his first goal for Villa, and should now hopefully kick on and grab a lot more in a claret and blue shirt.
