View: Busy finale to transfer window needed for Unai Emery’s depleted Aston Villa squad
If Aston Villa want to push towards European football in the second half of the season, they must be active in the closing stages of the transfer window and bolster their depleted squad.
Since Unai Emery’s arrival in the West Midlands, it is clear the club are happy to restructure the squad to the new managers needs and cough up the necessary funds to give him a squad capable of competing with the very best teams in the league.
So far this window the Villans have snapped up Real Betis left-back Alex Moreno and Jhon Duran from Chicago Fire for a combined price of £31million in what looks to be a couple of shrewd pieces of business.
Moreno has already looked a bright prospect in the team’s last two matches against Leeds United and Southampton after regular left-back Lucas Digne picked up a shoulder injury in the former match.
The highly-touted Duran, meanwhile, was confirmed as Aston Villa’s new number 22 on Monday (23 January) as the club released footage of the 19-year-old taking in an empty Villa Park stadium while watching a message from Juan Pablo Angel, who grew up in the same hometown as Duran in Colombia.
However, despite these progressive pieces of business that Emery and the board have completed, the match-day squad for the trip to St Mary’s at the weekend looked to lack depth.
The bench for the crunch clash against bottom-of-the-pile Southampton included 16-year-old winger Kadan Young, as well as two keepers in Robin Olsen and Viljami Sinisalo.
Since the match, Morgan Sanson, who was also on the bench, has sealed a loan move away from the club to Strasbourg until the end of the season, while Calum Chambers is also reportedly being offered a January exit by Unai Emery.
If Chambers were to leave, it would leave Villa with just two recognised centre-backs who are match fit in Tyrone Mings and Ezri Konsa – with Diego Carlos still on the road to recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
This is without even looking at the scarce options Emery has to tinker with in attack.
The sale of Danny Ings to West Ham for £15million and the loaning of Cameron Archer to Middlesbrough means Ollie Watkins and Duran are the only two centre-forwards in the first-team squad, with Leon Bailey the one recognised wide option.
Although Villa have won five of their last seven Premier League games under Emery, he simply won’t be able to keep this up if his depleted squad is hit by a couple more untimely injuries.
Two forward players is the bare minimum the club needs to bring in over the closing days of the winter window, otherwise, Villa are condemning themselves to a host of problems.
Watkins and Bailey need support in the attacking third as they can’t keep playing week in week out, and the likes of Gerard Deulofeu or Lyon forward Moussa Dembele both seem to be brilliant options.
Fans will be crossing their fingers that Sporting Director Johan Lange has a couple of gems up his sleeve who he can lure to Villa Park in the final week of the January transfer window.
In other Aston Villa news, a first-team outcast has agreed a loan deal with Strasbourg in the January transfer window.