Unai Emery must sanction deadline-busting double Aston Villa sale in last-minute exit – BBC pundit
We’re delighted to welcome former Aston Villa full-back Alan Hutton as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Villa Park…
Unai Emery must sell both Bertrand Traore and Calum Chambers before the end of the January transfer window to free up wages and space in his squad, according to Alan Hutton.
Emery confirmed at the start of the January window that both Chambers and Traore had been told that they were able to leave Villa Park during this month [Jacob Tanswell, 12 January], but with only days left in the window, neither player has come close to completing a transfer.
So far, the only real major outgoing from Emery’s side this month has been Leander Dendoncker, with the Belgian midfielder completing a loan switch to Napoli for the remainder of the season, having just fought his way back into Emery’s squad.
While Hutton accepts that it is difficult to convince teams to buy fringe players, he thinks that Emery has to start being more cutthroat in his outgoing transfer business if he wants to be able to recruit a higher calibre of players.
“I think they need to start now,” Hutton told Villa News.
“I’m quite surprised that they’ve left it this late. I understand that clubs are going to look at these players who aren’t playing week in and week out and think, ‘Why should we pay top dollar for you? You’ve not even been playing.’
“So they might wait to get a marked-down deal if you want towards the end of the window. But Unai Emery is going to have to start moving people on. We understand the calibre of player that he wants to bring in and to do that you need to free up wages, free up space that sort of thing.
“I wouldn’t be surprised in the next couple of days to get some of those fringe players off of the books.”
Traore has been a spare part at Aston Villa this season, only playing 10 minutes of Premier League football and has even struggled to make regular appearances in the Europa Conference League, taking to the field for only 13 minutes across the six group matches.
Chambers hasn’t played a single minute of Premier League football this season but has started one match in Europe this season. But with Clement Lenglet set to remain at Villa Park, it is clear that he doesn’t have a future under Emery.
With only hours left in the January window, it will be interesting to see whether Villa are able to move either player out before Thursday’s (1 February) deadline.
In other Aston Villa news, Hutton has addressed Rogers’ links with West Brom as he nears a January switch to Villa Park
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