Aston Villa too quick to sell superstars as Ben Broggio to Arsenal update emerges at Villa Park
Aston Villa are too quick to let potential superstars leave Villa Park amid transfer interest from Arsenal in academy star Ben Broggio, according to Alan Hutton.
Dan Bardell reported to Villa News (18 February) that the Gunners had been interested in signing young academy star Broggio before he signed his first professional contract with Unai Emery’s side at the beginning of February.
While the 17-year-old is still a long way away from the first team, he is the latest in a long line of young stars to be linked with a move away from Villa Park, with the likes of Carney Chukwuemeka, Cameron Archer, Jaden Philogene and Aaron Ramsey all being sold in recent years.
Hutton has been disappointed by the number of young talents Villa have sold in recent years, but he does have sympathy for Unai Emery and understands it must be hard to promote young players while pushing for the Champions League.
“I think at times they have been quick to allow the young talented players to leave,” Hutton told Villa News.
“They’ve worked ever so hard to try and find that pathway through to the first team and spent a lot of money on the youth setup and different things, so it is obviously working.
“At this moment of time, it is kind of difficult because Villa haven’t been in this position for a long period of time. It’s maybe not ideal to bring youth through because you’re really trying to build towards something like the Champions League.
“They obviously feel that they have enough talent within the squad so that they can let young players go so it’s really going to build down to them.
“We will know in the future, if these players go away and really hit form and become superstars it’s very disappointing for Villa, but at least there’s a pathway and they’re making it through.”
Can Aston Villa qualify for the Champions League?
Most teams fighting at the top end of the Premier League table tend to use the cup competitions as their opportunity to play young players in the first-team, but Villa’s early exits this season have stopped Emery from having that luxury.
The competitive nature of Villa’s Europa Conference League matches has made it similarly difficult for the Villa boss to rest and rotate his squad and that lack of opportunity may have pushed some players into leaving Villa Park.
Hopefully, the likes of Jacob Ramsey and Tim Iroegbunam can be examples of success stories from the Villa academy and continue to kick on and impress in the coming weeks and months.
In other Aston Villa news, Hutton believes Villa are ready to make a “statement” transfer for Denzel Dumfries this summer
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