Ezri Konsa – Fantasy Football Potential

Aston Villa have continued their busy summer with the signing of Brentford defender Ezri Konsa. The England u21 international joins Villa for a fee worth in the region of £12 million and links up with former manager Dean Smith who only brought him to Griffin Park a year ago.

Head coach Smith has said:

“Ezri fits the profile of the type of player we were looking for. It helps that Richard O’Kelly and I have worked with him before. He’s a high potential player who I believe can step up to the Premier League and I’m really looking forward to working with him again.

Player History

Konsa is in his first few years of professional football and has excelled himself every season thus far. His youth football started with famous Sunday League outfit Senrab F.C. The side is based in London and has a reputation of bringing through some world class players. The list contains many former Premier League players including the late Ugo Ehiogu, who was a legendary centre back at Villa Park.

Konsa will look to replicate what Ehiogu did in a Villa shirt and be a fan favourite with the Villa faithful. It isn’t just Ehiogu that Konsa can look up to. The likes of Lesley King, Sol Campbell and John Terry were former Senrab youngsters so the flock of central defenders from one Sunday League team is quite astonishing, and Konsa could be the next to make it at the very top.

He left Senrab at the age of 11 to join Charlton, where he was given a scholarship in 2014 then a first professional long term contract in 2015 after progressing significantly. He failed to break through in the 2015/16 season but was a key player for the Addicks after their relegation to League One.

He played 71 league games in the following two seasons, but it wasn’t enough as they were eventually knocked out in the play offs. During this time, Konsa was voted the club’s Young Player of the Year and almost won an accolade for the England u20’s, which was none less than the World Cup. His international awards don’t end there. Konsa was involved in England’s successful 2018 Toulon Tournament campaign, playing just twice.

This, combined with his domestic dominance, earned him a move to Championship side, Brentford where he joined the Bees for a reported fee of £2.5 million. He went on to play in all but four of the league matches that season, becoming a rock at the back for them and also his country at u21 level. However at the 2019 European u21 Championships, England were knocked out in the group stage with Konsa making just one appearance in a dead rubber match.

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Fantasy Football Potential

Central defenders don’t usually get a lot of attention when it comes to FPL, especially when they’re not as free scoring as the likes of Virgil Van Dijk or Shane Duffy. Konsa has just one senior goal to his name in over a century of appearances, so from that point of view he isn’t going to score you many points at all.

However his defensive abilities really shone through at Charlton and Brentford and he certainly won’t be starved of defensive responsibility next season with Villa. This means his blocks, interceptions etc will be high and inevitably as will his bonus points. He hasn’t convinced many with his £4.5m price tag. He makes it into just 0.1% of FPL squads.

With such a low ownership, he has the potential to be a decent differential option if Aston Villa and Konsa can find their feet quickly in the Premier League. There are better options in to that Villa defence, with marauding right-back Ahmed El Mohamady, having that Premier League experience required in a newly promoted side.

Written by, Harry Clark (@HarryClark_)

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