Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has confirmed that the club are looking to improve his squad this month, and conceded that Jaden Philogene could leave.
It’s arguably been a slightly underwhelming campaign thus far from Villa with regards to the first half of the Premier League season, as although it remains tightly stacked in the top half, we’ve had our struggles through the first few months.
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Our exit from the Carabao Cup was a setback, but we remain in the hunt for the Champions League and have our FA Cup campaign to look forward to, and so it’s important that if the club can, we strengthen Emery’s squad to ensure we’re as competitive as possible through the second half of the season and beyond.
With the January transfer window now open for business and speculation already linking us with activity, both incoming and outgoing, the Villa boss has confirmed that we’re assessing our options on how to improve the current squad, but he’ll likely leave the majority of that work to Monchi and the Villa management team, while his priority is getting three points against Leicester City this weekend.
“Of course, we are in the transfer window as well, and the club is moving forward to try to increase our level in the squad in case we can sign new players and in case someone has to leave, we are open to doing it,” he told the media, as per VillaTV. “But the most important for me is the match tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, he did concede that one player who could move on this month, most likely in another loan exit, is Philogene, who has been limited to 15 appearances so far this season, and just 535 minutes of football across those outings.
The 22-year-old has not only struggled with the competition for places in the squad as he is down the pecking order, but when he has been given a chance, although he’s put in important shifts from a defensive perspective for the team, he hasn’t been able to showcase any consistent or decisive quality in the final third to really stake a claim for a bigger role.
It must be difficult for him to do that though given the pressure on him to produce when he does feature, but he has lacked confidence and the intent to try things in the attacking third, and so perhaps a loan stint elsewhere would benefit him and either better prepare him for another year with us next season, or increase his value once again to make him a valuable asset who could be sold to help balance our spending.
“He has potential. He didn’t show his potential the first six months being here with us, but for different circumstances,” Emery added. “He played minutes, he played some important matches like against for example Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
“I believe in his potential, but it is maybe one option as well for him or for the club, because there are a lot of clubs interested in him because they believe as well in his potential.
“We are not close [to a move]. As a coach, I am not really wanting to let him leave, but we are speaking about the different options, and maybe [that] could be one option for him.
“My conversation always with him before, was to be patient, take time to improve things. For January, it could be one option for him or for the club to let him leave.”
Time will tell if that materialises, as Villa have been linked with Donyell Malen this week in a move that would bolster our attacking options and push Philogene further down the list, and so it’s important we make the right decisions for us as a club, but also for the players in question.
There are arguably clear areas in which we need to improve this squad still if we want to kick on and compete at a higher level consistently, and hopefully, we’re able to address as much as possible in this window to ensure we enjoy a successful run between now and May.
