Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has insisted that Diego Carlos has a key role to play for us despite speculation over his future at the club.
The 31-year-old was heavily linked with an exit last summer, but after Villa failed to sign a replacement, the Brazilian centre-half stayed and has featured 17 times so far this season.
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Earlier this week, the Telegraph reported that Carlos could be among those facing an uncertain future at Villa this month, and so the expectation was that we would try to move him on again and bring in an upgrade to shore up our leaky defence.
However, after Pau Torres suffered a broken metatarsal in our draw with Brighton this week, and subsequently he now faces a two-month spell on the sidelines, it sounds as though that has forced Emery and Villa to change their plans, as he insisted in his pre-match press conference ahead of our clash with Leicester City that Carlos is now ‘necessary’.
“For tomorrow he is injured and of course we need a centre-back like him after Pau Torres’ injury,” Emery said about Carlos, as per BirminghamLive. “We now have three [centre-backs]. We are working with Lamare Bogarde, his versatility can help us. We have Sil [Swinkels] in the squad as well, but the idea is to let him go on loan and play. Diego Carlos is necessary.”
Although he has produced some stand-out performances since he joined us in 2022, Carlos hasn’t been consistent enough and has been prone to making costly mistakes, and so ultimately it had been hoped that we would be able to move him on this month and bring in a more reliable defensive option for Emery.
Perhaps that might still happen if the ideal target becomes available, but given our lack of depth in the centre-half positions as detailed above by the Villa boss, it seemingly makes sense to keep Carlos at the club for now as he’ll likely provide cover for Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa, who will hopefully now have an extended run together in the heart of the Villa defence with Torres ruled out.
Emery went on to suggest that a right-back is a priority in the January transfer window, and so it’s hoped that will allow Konsa to stay in the middle permanently, rather than having to shift across when Matty Cash is unavailable.
For Carlos though, it’s a reprieve in terms of his future at Villa it seems, and it’s now crucial that he is able to step up and produce when he’s called upon in the second half of the campaign.
