Abraham relishing ’emotional’ Aston Villa return after transfer from Besiktas

Tammy Abraham is back at Aston Villa for a second spell.

Aston Villa striker Tammy Abraham expects his first game back at Villa Park to be an emotional one after re-joining the club from Besiktas.

Villa confirmed the return of Abraham for a second spell in a £18.25million move on Tuesday.

Abraham had been on loan at Besiktas from Serie A side Roma. Besiktas made the move permanent in an £11m transfer to facilitate his move to Villa.

Midfielder Yasin Ozcan will join Besiktas from Villa as part of the deal.

Abraham gives Villa another striker to take some of the load off Ollie Watkins as they aim to maintain a Premier League title challenge. Unai Emery’s men are four points behind leaders Arsenal.

The former Chelsea forward helped fire Villa to promotion from the Championship in 2018-19, scoring 26 goals in 40 games during his season on loan from the Blues.

Now Abraham is relishing the prospect of aiding the club’s push for a major trophy, with Villa also still in contention in the FA Cup and the Europa League.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Abraham told VillaTV.

“Since this first time I arrived here, I fell in love with the club. Ever since I left this club, I’ve pretty much watched every game, so I’ve been keeping track.

“We had an amazing season [in 2018-19], amazing outcome, and I always told myself [that] if I had to come back to England, Villa would be one of the special teams to come back to.

“I spoke it into existence, so I’m happy to be here. So many great memories, and I’m here now to create even more.

“I just can’t wait to meet everyone, to be back at Villa Park and seeing the crowd and seeing so many familiar faces. It’s exciting.”

Abraham is not registered to feature for Villa in their Europa League clash with Red Bull Salzburg on Thursday. However, he could feature on Sunday when they host Brentford.

Asked about the prospect of returning to Villa Park, Abraham added: “I don’t think I can put that into words. I know it’s going to be emotional. Even though I only had a season here, it’s a club that means a lot to me, to my family as well.

“I think those are the pros about going away, learning different cultures and experiences. I feel like I left here as a boy and I’m definitely coming back as a man.

“I’d like to bring my experience to help the team as much as possible and achieve something with this club.

“I’ve played against most of the boys here, and I know a few of them also, so they’ve helped me settle in quickly.

“I just can’t wait to get out there on the pitch with them and make more memories.

“Right now, the world’s our oyster. We’ve got a good team, a good squad. I don’t think it’s out of reach to say we can push for every competition we’re in.

“I’m here and I want to win. I want to win trophies, so we have to push for every competition we’re in. I’m excited, I just can’t wait.”

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Nicholas is a freelance sports journalist with significant experience covering a wide variety of sports. He has previously worked for Stats Perform and was most recently employed as San Francisco 49ers beat writer for A to Z Sports. He regularly contributes to Gridiron magazine and has also had NFL work featured in The Times and The Mirror.