Ty Bracey exclusive: Midfielder the priority for Aston Villa transfer window
We’re delighted to welcome Villa View host Ty Bracey as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Ty Bracey feels it is difficult to accurately predict what Unai Emery will do in his first Aston Villa transfer window but believes a midfielder should be the top priority.
The Villa boss has only been in place for a couple of weeks, and the club are now out of action until Boxing Day while the World Cup is held, but he has already pulled off two wins from two in the Premier League with what he has.
With such a short sample set to go off Bracey doesn’t think it’s clear who Emery is confident to rely on yet, but personally feels another midfield option, followed by possible reinforcements in attack and eventual replacements for the loanees are the current requirements.
He spoke exclusively to Villa News and said: “It’s a really tough one for me because we don’t know how Emery is viewing each player.
“We only see 90 minutes of football and social media posts, we don’t see anything that goes on behind closed doors.
“We don’t see how players react to instruction, and I think that’s important because ultimately the players need to do what Emery wants them to.
“In particular I think we definitely need one in the middle, I think that’s important, and maybe we might need more reinforcements up top as well.
“I think that will be it for the January transfer window. It all depends. We’ve got [Jan] Bednarek and [Ludwig] Augustinsson, but there’ve been reports with those two that we’re not interested in them long term.
“It’s one of those where they could be out the door in the summer.
“In terms of individual targets I really don’t know, it depends if they want someone more defensive minded [in the midfield], or if they want someone box to box or more forward, ultimately.“
The return of Boubacar Kamara from injury and the emergence of Leander Dendoncker has fleshed out the midfield department in terms of more defensively minded options.
But despite the improved results since Emery arrived there isn’t a huge amount of dynamism in the middle, and Steven Gerrard’s narrow tactics mean behind Leon Bailey there isn’t much in terms of width.
How much money the club are willing to give the manager remains to be seen but they have been decisive in landing him and it seems unlikely he would have agreed to make the switch without commitments on backing, so two or perhaps three key additions could be on the cards.
In other Aston Villa news, Barcelona are reportedly lining up Douglas Luiz.