After surviving a difficult season last year, Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert is spending the summer working. Lambert knows he needs to improve his team ahead of the new campaign and in particular strengthen his front line. With the uncertainty over the future of star striker, Belgian Christian Benteke, subject to interest from a variety of clubs across Europe, and the suspected departure of want away forward Darren Bent, Lambert has been scouring the continent for a powerful, young striker. In Denmark’s Nicklas Helenius Jensen, he has found the player who meets his criteria and will add a new dimension to Aston Villa.
(Image from Getty)
The 22 year old forward, who currently plays for Aalborg BK in the Danish Superliga has been in great form this year, scoring 16 times for the club, earning him a call up to the Danish full national squad last August. It was a natural progression for the 6ft 5in forward who has represented his country at all levels from Under 20’s up. Now with a move to Aston Villa, Helenius is taking the next step in his career that to date has shown a lot of promise. The player himself has spoken about his delight around the potential move and has pleaded with his current club, Aalborg not to price him too high in an effort to scupper the deal:
“I hope AaB will show enough co-operation and not demand too much money for me. The market is not ready for big transfers at the moment. I have already secured the club a lot of money through my goals, and I am on my first professional contract, so I am not making an awful lot of money. Aston Villa is a very exciting club known to use young players, I therefore think the club will be taking me to England and letting me play. I do not want to come to England to sit on the bench.”
(Image from PA)
Helenius is due in Birmingham shortly for contract talks and a medical, and all going well he should be a Villa player before the end of the month. With 21 year old Andreas Weimann signed up on a longer term contract and Helenius on the way, Lambert will focus on offloading Bent and persuading Benteke to commit to the club for the foreseeable future. If he is unable to do so, Helenius could find himself thrown into the deep end come the start of the season as Aston Villa’s starting striker. The challenge won’t scare Helenius who has already shown his maturity and eye for goal, having hit 40 goals in just over 100 appearances for Aalborg. In a blog post back in October, BOTN highlighted one of these goals and his potential, giving the Villa fans a glimpse of what they can expect with this talented forward.
To see Helenius goal, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0NCbzyy7pw
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