‘I made my decision’: £20m Newcastle player admits he could have joined Aston Villa instead 

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Newcastle have made some truly brilliant signings in recent years.

Ever since the takeover, the Magpies have barely put a foot wrong in terms of recruitment, but perhaps their best signing came just before PIF came to St James’ Park.

Indeed, in hindsight, signing Callum Wilson for just £20m was a ridiculously good deal, but it almost never came to pass.

Speaking on the Footballer’s Football Podcast, Wilson has now shared the details of his move to Tyneside, and he says that he very nearly ended up signing for Aston Villa instead.

Wilson almost joined Aston Villa

The striker spoke about almost joining the Villans.

“I had a decision to make. When I joined Newcastle there was Aston Villa, there was Newcastle. Newcastle has great history and basically the number nine shirt, playing as a striker, I know how much they are worshipped up here. That was something which definitely appealed to me.”

“There was time when you join a club and you write down your pros and your cons of why you are joining that football club and you stick by them. Don’t get me wrong, I joined Newcastle, we then was in a relegation battle, scraping the bottom of the league. Playing not so attractive football.

“Then Aston Villa was the other club that was interested at the time. They had just been taken over. They were starting to fly and things were going well there. We played against them and lost and I’m thinking ‘everyone was like that could have been you, why didn’t you join us”

“I thought to myself I made my decision in that moment based on the facts that were in front of me.

“So no matter what emotion is going on right now stick to your soul and your core decisions and ultimately football is a crazy sport, we end up getting taken over, then things go well here and we get in the Champions League, so I get to play in the Champions League for the first time with Newcastle. We play against Villa and we beat them 5-1 or something like that, so it’s crazy how football works.”

Worked for all parties

While Villa missed out on Wilson, strangely, this move probably worked out for the best for all involved.

Wilson himself has eventually gotten the chance to play Champions League football with Newcastle, while Villa picked up a striker in the shape of Ollie Watkins who suits Unai Emery’s style to a tee and may well fire them to a top four finish.

All in all, Wilson going to Newcastle instead of Villa worked out for everyone involved, and we can’t imagine that anyone involved in this transfer tussle has any regrets.