Dean Smith insists his sights 'were always firmly' on Ollie Watkins despite Aston Villa's interest in Callum Wilson last summer.
Villa, like Newcastle United, were on the lookout for a new striker ahead of the new campaign and Wilson was certainly on the club's radar.
Wilson, himself, admitted that he assessed both squads ahead of completing his £20m move to Newcastle from Bournemouth.
The 28-year-old, ironically, felt that he would get better service at Newcastle than he would at Villa and chose to move to St James' Park.
Just two days later, Villa agreed a club-record £28m deal with Brentford to sign Ollie Watkins and the striker and Wilson faced off for the first time at Villa Park on Saturday night.
While Wilson was starved of service, Watkins opened the scoring for Villa with just 13 minutes on the clock as the frontman ended his nine-game goal drought after some poor defending from the visitors.
Smith had previously worked with Watkins at Brentford and, following the host's 2-0 win, the Villa boss was asked if he believed his side had got the better deal.
"I've never discussed players I've been looking at before," he told reporters on Zoom. "My sights were always firmly on Ollie having worked with him before.
"Callum Wilson is a very good player and we had to defend well against him.
"Ollie was one I was always looking to do."
Wilson scored six goals in his first seven league games for Newcastle despite feeding off relative scraps.
However, without any real service whatsoever, the Magpies have scored just one goal in the last 744 minutes of football and failed to win any of their last 10 games in all competitions.
