Exclusive: Dan Bardell expects Ollie Watkins to stay at Aston Villa
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins is not going to be leaving the club during the window and has an important role this season, says Dan Bardell.
There have been repeated links between the former Brentford forward and an exit from Villa Park this summer, with West Ham touted as a £50million destination back in May [Guardian], and both Leeds and Crystal Palace said to still be monitoring him earlier this month [Ben Jacobs].
But with no headline striker arriving at the club during the transfer window Bardell believes any door for the top incumbent to leave has been firmly shut, with the England international “one of the first names on the team sheet”.
He exclusively told Villa News: “I think if Villa had bought a striker in the summer, potentially he may have left because he would have wanted to have played every week and Villa signing a striker would have put pay to that.
“Now Villa, for whatever reason, haven’t signed a striker. Ollie Watkins has played against Everton and got two assists. I thought he was brilliant.
“He worked hard, he ran the channels. I think at the moment, with the squad we’ve got, Ollie Watkins is one of the first names on the team sheet, whether we play two up front or play one up front, I think Ollie Watkins plays every week if I was picking the team.
“I just think he offers a lot of unseen things that help the rest of the team and he made both goals against Everton. The first one in particular was just clever movement and playing off the outside of the centre-half, running the channels and taking him into positions that he didn’t want to go.
“I thought he was excellent in that game. And he gets through so much running and work for the team.
“I still think he’s not quite the finished article. He’s only had two years in the Premier League so I still think there’s room for improvement for him as well.
“But from what I know he’s absolutely no problem at Aston Villa and he will be staying and leading the line for the majority of the season I would think.”
Unless Villa have an imminent goalscorer lined up there seems to be next to zero prospect of them letting go of Watkins even if a massive offer were to come in now.
The 26-year-old is probably a rung below the top drawer striker that Steven Gerrard would ideally like to have leading the line, but 25 Premier League goals in two seasons is not to be sniffed at.
With Danny Ings backing up it is a one-two punch that plenty of sides would regard with envy, and both firing this season is going to be a big part of whatever success the Villans can have.
In other Aston Villa news, the club are looking towards Spain and Portugal to sign a new defender.