Aston Villa have reportedly already held internal talks to prepare a strategy for the January transfer window as Unai Emery looks to stamp his mark on the squad.
With three games remaining before the break for the World Cup, the new Villa boss will no doubt use this time to assess his current squad to determine where he feels it needs to improve.
READ MORE: Emery outlines his Villa ambition, objectives with awareness of immediate challenges
Back-to-back clashes with Man Utd in the Premier League and Carabao Cup respectively will allow him to rotate if necessary to have a closer look at the players currently at his disposal, while we’ll face Brighton away in our last game before Christmas.
Naturally, Emery will likely have already been hard at work in analysing the group even before he took his first training session on Wednesday morning, and he’ll look to identify who does and doesn’t fit his plans and ideas moving forward.
As per The Telegraph, discussions are said to have already taken place on how Villa can strengthen the squad in the January transfer window, and it’s suggested that signing a new winger could be a priority for the club.
While we do seem to have plenty of options in that department already with Leon Bailey, Emiliano Buendia, Philippe Coutinho and Ollie Watkins all featuring on the flanks at various times this season, Villa have to now back Emery and address his concerns and find solutions.
Whether that is with the belief that the likes of Buendia and Coutinho will now play more centrally and Watkins will play up top as a frontman remains to be seen, but there’s certainly enough depth and competition in the squad to change things and make tweaks to try and find answers in the next three games.
Emery stressed on multiple occasions in his press conference on Friday and in his first interview as Villa boss that the current team is underperforming and his full focus is simply on our next game against Man Utd on Sunday.
However, along with the Villa hierarchy, he will surely also have one eye on the transfer market and who he can bring in to improve what he already has, and it promises to be a fascinating process with some big decisions ahead that will shape not only the squad, but how successful we are moving forward.
