Aston Villa boss Unai Emery was quizzed on his plans for the January transfer window on Friday, and he was open about what the approach will be.
Villa secured back-to-back wins in his first two Premier League games in charge prior to the World Cup break, and he’ll be hoping that we can pick straight back up from where we left off when we host Liverpool on Boxing Day.
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Having had the benefit of working closely with the players during our warm-weather training camp in the UAE and at Bodymoor Heath over the past month, it’s hoped that the Spanish tactical has been able to implement his plans more succinctly. However, the expectation remains that he’ll want to stamp his mark on the squad through reinforcements in the New Year.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of our encounter with Liverpool, the Villa boss was open about his view on the situation and opened the door for new signings as he’s certainly expected to be backed by the club hierarchy.
“We are working now about something we can add when the new transfer market opens,” he said, as per Villa TV. “I am so happy with with players we have, but someone could leave and someone could I think can add to help us. We are working, we are moving in the direction to try to really add someone or add players who could help us improve our performance, including to be ready in the squad, help us be clear, good players, good performance and trying to be together for the way we want to play.”
“I am so excited when I arrived here, I am so excited now and I am excited by the team we have now and the players we can add in the transfer market. It’s not easy the January transfer market and it’s not easy to have the possibility to add players to clearly improve the squad but we are going to move to try to do it.
“We can move in the short future to add but the club is working and we are trying to look for something really really important or players to help on the pitch and on the squad, to help add some different profiles and characteristics.”
It’s important that Emery is given the opportunity to bring in his own players starting in January as he looks to further implement his style and principles. Some players will no doubt struggle to provide him with what he wants, and so ultimately there will be changes ahead to the Villa squad.
What was critical about the comments above though was the impression that Emery and Villa will only move for players who are absolutely capable of improving the current squad and adding something that helps us move closer to competing at a higher level.
It’s about quality over quantity for Villa now as we have a talented squad as a base, and so it’s more about identifying players who suit Emery’s style and will fit in well and can raise the standard within the group to ensure we continue to kick on under the Spaniard.
Further, it was also notable that Emery openly admitted that some players could leave, and that will also be a key part of the process of building his own squad as he will want to create space for new signings and balance his spending with exits.