.30pm
In the week that Aston Villa confirmed their place in the last 16 of the Champions League, they also sold their top scorer. Jhon Duran’s departure will be a disappointment to some. The challenge for Unai Emery is to ensure the changes make Villa stronger.
Dealing with the twin tests of the Premier League and Europe has been a theme of the season. They go to Wolves on Saturday after the high of that victory over Celtic on Wednesday knowing that they have not won after a European game since September.
But these past few weeks, in which Diego Carlos and Emiliano Buendia have also left the building, have included the added distraction of the transfer window. How is the man expected to manage all these moving parts coping with the myriad demands?
“Always, in football, it is a busy time,” Emery tells Sky Sports. “Even when you are resting, even when you are on holiday, always our minds are thinking something around football, around the squad, around the players, around the objectives we can face.”
Another constant topic of the campaign has been how to accommodate Duran alongside Ollie Watkins in the Villa team. It was a conundrum that Emery was never able to solve. Their last game together, for half an hour in Monaco, was not a success.
Speaking at the club’s training ground, as the screens playing Sky Sports News tell of interest in Joao Felix, Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford, Emery explains his plans for life post-Duran. Do not expect him to try to replace the Colombian striker like for like.
“We are in a new way,” he insists. “I am practising how we can play with Donyell Malen. The club is working [on players] to join us but, of course, now we have players in the squad ready to play, ready to be versatile as well and to play …
Read More
