Aston Villa’s President of Football Operations, Monchi, has discussed our remaining transfer plans ahead of the January window deadline.
Villa have already been active this month with the signings of Donyell Malen and Andres Garcia, while Jaden Philogene and Diego Carlos have departed along with a string of loan exits.
READ MORE: Villa paired with loan swoop to address important concern ahead of deadline
However, the expectation is that we’ll be busy through the final few days of the window, starting with the imminent exit of Jhon Duran as he looks set for a move to Al-Nassr worth in excess of €77m.
Unai Emery spoke in midweek about his desire to keep the Colombian striker at the club as he evidently has a key role in the current squad alongside Ollie Watkins as our frontman options, but the suggestion from the Villa boss was that Duran was perhaps the one looking to move on, and that sentiment has been echoed by Monchi who concedes that Villa simply weren’t able to ignore such a substantial offer, nor were we able to compete with the numbers from the Saudi club.
“With the market there is a lot of movement and we are trying to shore up the squad in what remains of the market,” Monchi told the El Partidazo de COPE Podcast. “I hope [Friday] the documents can be signed, but yes – Jhon Duran is an important sale of a very good player with tremendous potential. What is true is that the offer was a difficult one to reject because it was one of many numbers. We valued all the pros and cons and in the end we decided to accept.
“If someone wants to leave, you can’t compete. Not only transfer level but above all salary level. In the case of Jhon Duran, his salary has increased five-fold – and it was already an important salary at Aston Villa because we renewed his contract three months ago and we put him at a slightly higher level.”
With Emiliano Buendia joining Bayer Leverkusen on loan coupled with the expected departure of Duran, that will leave Emery short of options in the final third as we need to maintain a strong group which has competition for places and depth to cover for absences.
The same could be said of our defence currently with both Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings sidelined by injury in addition to Carlos leaving.
Monchi has seemingly confirmed that Joao Felix and Marco Asensio are two transfer targets that we’re considering, as recently reported, but it remains unclear at this stage if a deal can be done for either, or if we’ll ultimately have to look elsewhere for solutions before the deadline.
“Let’s see with the names we’re considering,” he added. “It attracts a little attention depending on what he wants from the profile that he’s looking for. They are two similar players who move in a similar area of the field and they’re to Unai’s liking. Marco Asensio, Aston Villa tried to sign him two summers ago. In the end he decided to go to PSG.
“I think with Felix we’ve tried to bring him in practically every market. In the end he decided to go to Chelsea, in the exchange with Conor Gallagher and Atletico Madrid. He’s always been a target for us. Neither of them are easy because of the salary level and the cost level. It’s not easy but it’s true and I cannot deny that they are players who are attractive.
“If there is a coach in European or even world football who is characterised by recovering players and getting the most out of them, it’s Unai Emery. At Valencia, Sevilla, Villarreal, even here in Birmingham and Aston Villa, he has been able to recover talent. If the footballer has talent, and in the case of Joao Felix he does, it’s a case of finding a suitable environment to get the best version of the player.”
Felix is evidently a player that Emery rates very highly and believes would be an excellent fit in his Villa side, and so with the windfall from Duran’s exit coupled with the space that now exists in the squad to make a deal happen, it’s hoped that the Villa boss gets his primary target.
If not, Villa have to move on quickly with just days left in the window, and perhaps Asensio is being lined up as a possible Plan B in case that situation materialises. Villa still boast excellent options in the final third with Morgan Rogers, Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey and Malen, but as noted above, particularly with exits in mind and the lack of options up front to challenge Watkins, we surely need to bring in a reinforcement for the remainder of the campaign.
