Christian Benteke has been linked with a move from Crystal Palace to his former stomping ground at Aston Villa, as reported by The Telegraph.
The Premier League has progressed in the eight years since the Belgian first arrived at Villa Park but he will also have changed as a player.
However, seeing the now-29-year-old linked with a transfer back to the club could see some begin to reminisce about his initial impact.
Contrasts can also be made between his start at Villa and the one that Wesley had before sustaining his season-ending injury against Burnley.
The obvious comparison to make would be in goal contributions, with the Brazilian having scored five goals and one assist from 21 Premier League starts this season.
Benteke ended that campaign with 19 goals and four assists, but for fairness, from his first 21 appearances, the Belgian amassed eight goals and four assists.
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There is far more to the strikers’ games than solely getting goals though, with buildup and holdup play being an integral part of how Villa will be able to form their attacks.
As shown by the statistics below, Benteke was also far superior in this aspect of the role.
The most glaring statistic within this is that Benteke won 4.6 more aerial duels during his maiden campaign than Wesley has averaged this term.
There is also an overall indication that the Belgian was far more effective across the board, averaging 1 more key pass, 0.1 more dribbles, while also being fouled 0.8 more times on average than the 23-year-old.
In addition, it is shown that he had superior quality in this regard, as well as involvement, as he made 0.6 fewer bad controls per game.
Bringing Wesley into the club could have been considered a gamble. They were paying a fee of £22m for a relatively unknown player from the Jupiler Pro League.
Having signed Benteke from the same league in 2012 for a fee of £7m, Villa will likely have been looking for someone to make a similar impact this time around – though that is not how things have turned out so far.
Meanwhile, Villa’s transfer target could act as a roadblock for their exciting youngster.
