10 Players You Didn't Know Aston Villa Almost Signed
10. Romelu Lukaku
Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku could have been on his way to Aston Villa on a season-long loan instead of West Brom in 2012 when new manager Paul Lambert contacted the Blues over the youngster's availability. "I remember when I first came in here I spoke to Chelsea about Lukaku before we saw Christian (Benteke), said Lambert. I knew about him and this club needed somebody to be that type of player. "Obviously we couldn't afford that at that time and Christian came in. The rest is history, as they say. Lukaku went on to score 17 league goals that season for West Brom, so Villa would have been upset to have missed out the previous summer, however, Benteke did bag an impressive 19 league goals in his debut season under Lambert, so every cloud has a silver lining. Imagine what could have been had he played alongside Benteke though.
Crippy Cooke, 23, is a freelance Football Writer contributing to What Culture. He's had work featured on Zoo, MSN, London 24, The Telegraph, The Huffington Post, and was recently named Writer of the Year on FTBpro - while also a nominee for Best Male Blog in the Football Blogging Awards.
