Ollie Watkins has left Aston Villa for Al-Hilal. The fee is €58.4 million with €2 million in add-ons, and his terms in Saudi Arabia are reported at around $15 million a year.
Villa did this in the right order, which is why it happened at all. Unai Emery was never going to release his only established centre-forward without cover, so Villa agreed a deal with Chelsea worth up to £65 million for Nicolas Jackson first and approved Watkins's exit second.
The economics are hard to argue with. Villa paid Brentford a club-record £28 million for him in 2020, got six seasons, an England career and a Champions League campaign out of him, and have sold him at 30 for more than double what they paid, at the point where a striker's resale value starts falling rather than after it has.
What they lose is less easily replaced than the fee suggests. Watkins pressed for ninety minutes, played every week and scored in the teens season after season without ever being the reason a team was built a certain way. Squads notice that kind of player only once he has gone.
He is the second big name out of Villa this week, with Emiliano Martínez expected to follow him. Emery's rebuild is happening in public and at speed.