Calum Chambers now surely heads for Aston Villa exit door after Pau Torres news emerges
Aston Villa reportedly have an agreement in place with Villarreal for the signing of Pau Torres and that may now surely push Calum Chambers out the Villa Park exit door.
According to a report in The Athletic [29 June], Villa now have an agreement with the Spanish giants and also on personal terms with the international defender, 26.
Torres, who formed a crucial component of Unai Emery’s setup at Villarreal during his two-year stint with the Yellow Submarine, is now set to reunite with his former manager after the former Arsenal boss earmarked him to the new Villa president of football operations Monchi as a top target.
Torres was a key player for Villarreal last season, making 39 appearances as the club finished fifth in La Liga to secure Europa League football next season.
He has 23 caps for Spain and was part of the squad at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the Spaniard is now set to join a very talented crop of Aston Villa centre-backs, with him, Tyrone Mings, Diego Carlos and Ezri Konsa all vying for places in Emery’s plans next season.
And given the quality of all those names right now, that could unfortunately well spell the end of Chambers’ time in the West Midlands, under a manager who’s sold him before.
When Emery was manager at Arsenal back during the 2018/19 campaign, Chambers was a young 23-year-old feeling he was ready for the big-time at The Emirates after emerging on the scene in North London.
However, the Spaniard didn’t have the same thought towards him, instead entering the transfer market to secure the services of Borussia Dortmund centre-back Sokratis and David Luiz.
Both players were established defensive names in Europe, which spelt the end of Chambers’ dream at the Emirates, and he was shipped out on loan to Fulham that year, and it ended in disastrous fashion for Chambers and the Cottagers as they suffered relegation while he played 31 of their 38 games in the top-flight.
And the former Gunners may now be tasting the same fate five years on at Villa Park, with Emery yet again going for more established names in the market, and Chambers’ stats in West Midlands certainly doesn’t make for pleasing reading regarding his future in Emery’s plans.
In his 14 games at Villa Park, Chambers only made just two starts and was a regular benchwarmer under Emery after he was appointed back in November.
In those games, Chambers didn’t contribute to any clean sheets which is made all the more telling given Konsa and Mings, when paired together, during Emery’s tenure helped themselves to nine clean sheets [WhoScored]. The worrying numbers don’t stop there too.
The 28-year-old only averaged 0.5 tackles per game, 0.6 tackles, won just 47% of his ground duels and a disastrous 33% of his aerial duels, as per SofaScore.
More crucially, with Emery favouring a possession-based style at Villa Park, Chambers’ stats showed he’s not a reliable outlet when playing out of the back successfully completing just 80% of his short passes [SofaScore], in comparison to Mings’ 93% and Konsa’s 89% success rate.
Also, Carlos has proven a stunning outlet in such a progressive trait at the top level in Spain and across the European continental competitions for Sevilla, as has Torres who has long been a deep-lying possession mastermind for the Yellow Submarine.
It is clear all four defenders will form the heart of Emery’s defensive unit in all competitions next season, and it’s incredibly difficult to see where Chambers fits in all that. Just as he suffered the same fate at the Emirates five years ago, it won’t be a surprise to see Emery sanction a move for him to quit Villa Park.
In other Aston Villa news, the club have received an offer from Turkey for Phillipe Coutinho.