With June shaping up to be a critical month for Aston Villa, the club have big decisions to make on a trio of loanees set to return to their parent clubs next month.
Ahead of the June 30 deadline, Villa are expected to be under pressure to make sales to balance our books for PSR purposes, while also trying to reduce our wage bill to ensure we’re compliant with UEFA’s financial rules.
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Perhaps once those hurdles have been overcome, Unai Emery, Monchi and the entire recruitment team can fully focus on how to strengthen the squad, and time will tell if that process includes considering permanent swoops for Axel Disasi, Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford.
The trio were all signed on a temporary basis in January in a bid to give us a timely boost in our pursuit of Champions League qualification.
It worked to an extent, as while Disasi gave us defensive depth and competition for places when needed, both Asensio and Rashford injected quality and fresh dynamics into our attacking play and enjoyed a particularly bright start before tailing off towards the end of the campaign.
Ultimately, we fell short of our main objectives of winning silverware and securing a top-five finish in the Premier League, and so although difficult decisions were expected regardless, we’re potentially set to be forced into making them sooner and perhaps more of them than initially planned for.
So, have Disasi, Asensio and Rashford done enough to warrant a permanent switch? Will the trio even be keen on extending their respective stays?
Their loan deals will officially expire next month, but following what read a lot like a farewell message to Villa, it looks highly unlikely that we’ll see Rashford return.
As per Fabrizio Romano, the 27-year-old will be available to all clubs for £40m with Barcelona showing a keen interest, and so it’s fair to say that we’ll probably have to identify alternative solutions to bolster our attacking options ahead of next season.
In contrast, Asensio thanked all at Villa after his stint with us, and teased a potential return in his social post as he noted that he was ‘looking forward to what’s ahead’.
The 29-year-old contributed eight goals and one assist in 21 appearances, but having ended the season with an eight-game stretch in the Premier League without any goal contributions, his fast start wasn’t maintained, thus raising question marks over whether or not he really makes sense as a permanent signing coupled with his impact on Morgan Rogers’ role in the side having forced him into wider areas when involved.
While he’ll likely be cheaper than Rashford, the Spanish playmaker will still be expensive and command high wages, and so unless Emery feels as though he could still play a fundamental role in our plans and is better than the alternative targets, there is a sense that Asensio won’t come back either.
Unfortunately, the same could also be said of Disasi. The Frenchman is a capable back-up option who is versatile enough to play as a centre-half or right-back, but given he’ll likely remain down the pecking order, that’s an expensive depth option to have for a club that is looking to trim the wage bill and raise funds.
In turn, there is a realistic scenario this summer in which none of our loanees stay on, and that will hopefully give Monchi enough freedom and flexibility in the transfer market to ensure we’re as competitive as possible next year and beyond.
Agree with the above, or would you try to keep our loanees this summer?
It would be good if the club came out ant told the fans exactly what’s going on for instance why does Martinez suddenly want out ? Why isn’t anything being said about Asensio ? The majority of fans would like to see him sign on a permanent basis. Why are we talking about signing a wonder kid on a free we all know there’s no such thing. Our goal difference tells its own story what we need is a quality striker we can’t go on missing clear chances, personally if Watkins wants to leave so be it, we don’t need any player that doesn’t want to stay. The club needs to be straight with its fans and say it as it is.
Of course these are only my opinion but I’m entitled to them