​Leon Goretzka looks set to sign for Aston Villa, after leaving Bayern Munich in June.Aston Villa’s summer has been dominated by difficult decisions, key departures, injuries and the financial restrictions that have made strengthening Unai Emery’s squad far more complicated than it should be, but an agreement in principle to sign Leon Goretzka represents the type of opportunity Villa simply had to take.Jacob Tanswell and David Ornstein of The Athletic have reported that Villa have reached an agreement in principle to sign the 31-year-old midfielder on a free transfer, with the deal still subject to a medical, and after João Palhinha had been the player seemingly earmarked to bolster Emery’s midfield for much of the summer, I actually prefer the route Villa have eventually gone down.Palhinha would have made sense. Villa have been looking for additional physical presence in midfield since discovering that Amadou Onana would miss virtually the entire season with an ACL injury, and a loan deal for a proven Premier League midfielder was hardly something I was going to complain about, but after that move dragged on and Palhinha eventually chose Benfica, Villa have turned towards a player with even greater pedigree.Goretzka has spent eight years at Bayern Munich, has played Champions League football at the very highest level, has been a regular German international for the best part of a decade and was still heavily involved last season, rather than being somebody who had simply been sitting around waiting for his contract to expire.That is an important distinction when assessing this deal.There will inevitably be people who look at Goretzka being 31 and question whether Villa should be going down this route, particularly after a summer in which the squad has already required significant rebuilding, but I think there has to be some context around every signing. Villa are not paying a transfer fee for him and while there will obviously be a signing-on fee and substantial wages involved, the idea that the club are suddenly going to destroy the wage structure they have worked so hard to reduce doesn’t make much sense.Villa know exactly where they are financially, particularly with the UEFA restrictions hanging over them, and they wouldn’t be doing this deal if the overall package wasn’t workable.What they are getting in return is a midfielder who gives Emery an awful lot of what he has been missing.I spoke to German football expert Kevin Hatchard about Goretzka and one of the things he was keen to stress was that there should be no concern about his ability to get around the pitch in the Premier League. You can look at his frame and assume he might be cumbersome, but that isn’t his game at all. He has the physicality, he can tackle, he is excellent in the air, he can distribute the ball and he carries a genuine goal threat, whether that is arriving into the box or striking from distance.He also brings leadership and experience to a Villa squad that h