Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has insisted that Diego Carlos and Jhon Duran are both part of his plans as of now despite intense speculation over their futures this summer.
Duran, 20, didn’t feature over pre-season after representing Colombia at the Copa America earlier this summer, while Carlos was left out of the Villa squad for our final three pre-season outings after receiving a red card against RB Leipzig during our USA tour.
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Reports have linked the Villa pair with exits amid doubts over their respective futures at the club. Carlos was paired with a departure amid his absence in pre-season, while Duran’s social media antics at a time when he was heavily linked with a move to West Ham, as well as comments he made to Colombian media, didn’t go down well with most Villa supporters.
However, on the eve of our Premier League season opener this weekend, both players remain at Emery’s disposal having not moved on, and the Villa boss has noted that Carlos is part of his plans as things stand, but he didn’t necessarily, or entirely, rule out a potential exit for the Brazilian centre-half if an acceptable offer comes in for his services.
“Diego Carlos is completely with us,” Emery told reporters at his Friday pre-match press conference. “He was thinking maybe to think of leaving here in case we have a good offer from another team. We were open like with every player to listen. In this moment and today, he is with us. We are happy with him and his performances were good for us.
“Maybe it can change, but not in my mind to change something with him. In case there is an offer, it could be a good offer. He is training again.”
What is clear though is that if Carlos were to move on, Villa must be ready to move in the transfer market to replace him and fill that void, so as to avoid being left light of options at the back and without enough competition and depth to compete across multiple competitions this season.
While the 31-year-old has been injury prone and his touted high wages would make an exit understandable, he played an important part in our campaign last year to help secure Champions League qualification, and so if he’s fully focused on helping Villa kick on and build and is capable of being a reliable and consistent presence in the squad, it’s hoped him staying proves to be the best outcome.
That said, time will tell if a formal offer comes in, whether or not Villa are still prepared to oversee a reshuffle and strengthen in that department.
Meanwhile, Emery also spoke on Duran, and he sounded more convincing on the young Colombian striker in terms of actually reintegrating back into the group and planning to have him with us this season now.
As noted above, the Villa forward didn’t do himself any favours with his social media activity earlier this summer, while question marks have consistently been raised over his attitude and professionalism based on his off-the-pitch decisions and what we’ve heard from Emery on the continued process of trying to integrate him and help him fully adapt to our structure and way of playing.
However, the Basque coach sounds as determined as ever to help Duran unlock his full potential, and hopefully he now gets his head down, works hard and provides an important contribution to the team whenever he is called upon to do so.
“He is training with us and training well, he came back last week with good spirit and my idea is until he is here with us, I am going to use him,” Emery added on Duran. “I believe in his potential, he helped us last year in some moments being a very important player.
“Of course, he is young and making mistakes sometimes. I want to try to teach him as well as a person, as I was last year and will this year if he needs it. As a player and a professional, taking responsibility himself and trying to create a mentality here, he is one of the players I have to be close to in supporting him. The most important thing is he is ready and available and he is with us, with our shirt.
“He is young and he has a big potential to exploit. He will need time and he will need to be patient. Sometimes he wasn’t being patient and he wants everything so quick.
“To be here fighting with Watkins for one position and seeing how successful Watkins’ career is here, it’s not easy. He was telling us he was thinking his best option was to leave so he could play more and more for another club and fulfil his potential, I can understand it. We were always talking to him to help and support him. We wanted to take the best decision for everybody – for him, for the club and for us.
“Of course, when he makes a mistake like that it is not the right way and so we spoke to him. But these were a young person’s mistakes that a mature and responsible person would not do. So the process with him is to try to support and help him go the right way.
“Until then, every decision we make about him will be me trying to help him and support him. I want to use him and use his potential with us. Hopefully we will get it. We have been speaking a lot with him about his commitment over the whole season, about being focussed, about his development, respect, everything. He is training well, he is in the squad for tomorrow.
“I want to speak with the team and with each individual player about our objectives. Now he is one of those players who I think is with us. He is going to do his best in an Aston Villa shirt and defend us.”