Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has responded to speculation linking both Jhon Duran and Ollie Watkins with exits this week, with the former seemingly set to move on.
Ahead of our crunch Champions League clash with Celtic on Wednesday night, the build-up to the game was dominated by speculation surrounding the pair, amid rumours linking Duran and Watkins with a move to Al-Nassr and Arsenal respectively.
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While Fabrizio Romano reported that a £60m offer from the Gunners for Watkins was rejected, David Ornstein has since confirmed that Villa have agreed a deal with Al-Nassr over a transfer for Duran worth €77m plus add-ons.
Nothing is official as of yet so it remains to be seen if the touted exit for the 21-year-old materialises, but naturally, it was a hot topic after our win over Celtic which secured our place in the last 16, with Emery pressed on whether or not either Duran or Watkins would be leaving the club ahead of the January transfer window deadline.
“We are in the eyes of other strong teams and other strong countries like Saudi Arabia,” Emery said, as quoted by The Athletic. “I don’t know exactly until everything is done until Duran is leaving or not, but if Duran is leaving it is good for us, because they are paying good money and we have developed good players in two years and getting a good offer.
“I was always trying to get him with my advice. I was so, so close with him, trying to work with him for his development.
“But the player has their own objective, own ambition and sometimes impassioned. And if he is leaving it is because he prefers to do another way in his career.”
On Watkins, Emery added: “I don’t want him to be sold. it is good new to have offers from other clubs. It is good, but I don’t want him to leave. We want to keep our objectives through the players we have in the squad.
“Every player can be in the market in case its good for the player, club and the team. But to get this deal, of course we are going to be very demanding and Watkins is our striker.”
Based on his comments above, it’s clear that Emery doesn’t want to lose Watkins, such is his importance to us both through his goalscoring but also his overall contribution to the team with his work ethic, movement, creativity and ability to lead the line so effectively to help others thrive.
The 29-year-old is clearly the more complete and polished frontman, and with ambitions to compete and win things now as well as in the longer run, he remains the clear No.1 when it comes to our starting line-up.
In contrast, it sounds as though Duran wants the move to Saudi Arabia, and so if it makes financial sense for us, it seems like the smart decision to cash in and reinvest in players who are fully committed to us moving forward.
While the Colombian international has shown encouraging signs this season on and off the pitch, this constant merry-go-round over his future with us will eventually become tiring, and it’s a gamble then to offload Watkins and bank on Duran being the long-term solution.
With 12 goals in 29 appearances so far in this campaign coupled with a more mature and committed approach, Emery has seen a big step in the right direction from the Villa forward and it’s certainly a blow to lose him as we have two high-level strikers in the squad, but it seems as though he still isn’t entirely settled and happy at Villa, and so an exit makes sense for all concerned.
