Aston Villa are reportedly looking to offload Diego Carlos and Leander Dendoncker in the coming days, with Feyenoord defender Lutsharel Geertruida still our priority transfer target.
Villa have been busy this transfer window already with a number of incomings and outgoings as Unai Emery looks to strengthen his squad, while the club have had to continue to be mindful of financial regulations both from the Premier League and UEFA.
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With the transfer deadline fast approaching on Friday though, it doesn’t appear as though our work is finished, as The Telegraph report that we’re continuing to try and trim the squad by shifting fringe players.
Both Diego Carlos and Leander Dendoncker are said to be the focus, as per the report above, as we look to move them on and not only create space in the squad, but also to give ourselves further financial flexibility. That in turn could help fund a £30m swoop for Geertruida, who is said to be Emery’s top priority to bolster our defensive options.
The 24-year-old Dutch international would be a top reinforcement not only due to his defensive qualities and technical ability in possession, but he has the versatility to play as a centre-half, right-back and as a defensive midfielder if required.
In turn, that would tick a number of important boxes both in terms of his ability to integrate and adapt to Emery’s preferred system and style of play, but to also fill a number of roles if necessary as we look to compete across multiple fronts this season.
Particularly after Matty Cash’s injury setback this past weekend, we are light at right-back, with Kosta Nedeljkovic expected to continue to deputise when we visit Leicester City this weekend.
Neither Carlos nor Dendoncker have featured in our opening two league games, and ultimately as we look to not only improve the squad with younger, more suitable options for Emery but also manage our wage bill, it seems if we can continue to offload fringe players, we can focus on quality over quantity and simultaneously raise the level within the group with the addition of Geertruida.
