Aston Villa boss Unai Emery has revealed the reasoning behind why Nicolo Zaniolo wasn’t involved against Hibernian on Wednesday night.
The 24-year-old joined us last week on an initial loan move from Galatasaray, with reports suggesting that we have an option to make it a permanent switch at the end of the season.
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Having been pictured in training at the start of the week and with Emery himself quoted as saying that the Italian international could be involved in our Europa Conference League play-off round tie against Hibernian, Zaniolo wasn’t included in the matchday squad.
That in turn raised question marks as to why he was left out entirely, especially after the club released images from Easter Road showing that he had made the trip to Scotland with the rest of the squad.
As per the Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell, Zaniolo wasn’t available for selection as UEFA informed Villa that he was ineligible having already featured in Europe with Galatasaray.
The talented attacking ace played 73 minutes in a Champions League qualifier for the Turkish giants in July, and so that rules him out of contention for our play-off round tie as he will only become eligible for the group stage onwards.
While it was disappointing that we ultimately didn’t get our first look at our new summer signing, there was perhaps some relief too that it wasn’t injury related, given Zaniolo had missed a number of Galatasaray’s more recent games due to a groin strain.
Nevertheless, having appeared in group training this week, he could make his first appearance in a Villa shirt against Burnley on Sunday. Given his lack of playing time in recent weeks though, it would come as no surprise if he starts on the bench, and hopefully we’re in a position in the latter stages to bring him on and give him valuable minutes.
Villa have been impressive in our last two outings having scored nine and conceded none, and so Emery is unlikely to tinker and make too many changes this weekend.
However, he would have rotated for the second leg against Hibernian next week given our commanding lead, and so it’s a shame that Zaniolo won’t get a chance to feature in that. Nevertheless, there’s a long season ahead, and he’ll hopefully prove to be a decisive figure for us.
