Aston Villa reportedly sent a scout to watch the Europa League clash between FC Midtjylland and Sporting on Thursday, although no specific targets have been identified.
After a relatively quiet January transfer window during which our only notable additions were Alex Moreno and Jhon Duran, the expectation is that Villa will ramp up recruitment for Unai Emery this summer.
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CEO Christian Purslow himself even revealed that he expects a busy summer when speaking prior to kick-off against Arsenal last Saturday, and so having cleared space in the squad to an extent last month, it’s likely that Emery will be significantly backed ahead of next season to continue to mould the squad that he inherited into his own.
Between now and the end of the season, the Spaniard will undoubtedly make key assessments and decisions on the current group in terms of who fits into his long-term plans having had a significant period to analyse each individual, but the Villa hierarchy will also surely be monitoring potential transfer targets too.
According to Record, as reported by Sport Witness, a Villa scout was sent to watch FC Midtjylland’s encounter with Sporting this week in the Europa League, and although there is no mention of any specific players who might be on our radar, there is clearly an individual or more who has attracted our interest for the trip to happen.
Pedro Goncalves and Manuel Ugarte were among those to impress in the 4-0 win for the Portuguese giants, and so time will tell if they were the initial focus, or perhaps if they caught the eye of whoever was watching on from the club.
It promises to be a fascinating summer in which we’ll see Emery’s influence grow and hopefully the quality level of the squad is raised significantly to put us in position to kick on and compete at a higher level next season.
There is still much to play for this year though and a top-10 finish in the Premier League will hopefully be achieved, but there is a lot of intrigue and excitement about the calibre of player we will be targeting and able to attract this summer, to continue to make progress and move towards achieving our ultimate objectives of challenging for trophies and getting back into Europe.