We’re delighted to welcome Sky Sports journalist Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist as each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Dan Bardell has dismissed speculation that Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign Cyril Ngonge from Hellas Verona in the January transfer window.
But it added that the Villans are facing competition for the Belgian winger’s signature, with Fiorentina also believed to be interested in signing him this month.
Bardell doesn’t believe Unai Emery will be very active in the transfer market unless an “amazing opportunity” or a “clever loan deal” comes up over the next few weeks.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Bardell said: “Villa haven’t agreed deals with anyone at the moment. I think Villa are very much taking a wait-and-see approach in January. The caveat there is that things can always change in transfers, but at the moment, I think Emery is quite happy with what he’s got.
“I don’t think he’s a massive fan of the January window. We saw last January that Villa weren’t too active, but they had an opportunity to get a player in that he thought would improve us in Moreno and he did it.
“Villa will have a list of players that they really want and, if one of those players was to become available in January and they could accelerate it and take it out the summer budget, they would probably do it.
“But unless something like that happens or an amazing opportunity comes up to get a clever loan deal that will really improve the squad in the second half of the season, I wouldn’t expect Villa to do anything.
“I think with the profit and sustainability rules Villa are still tight with that. That’s something they were tight with in the summer, that doesn’t just go away in January, it’s still there. They sold Finn Azaz for £2.5million, but I don’t see that that’s going to make the world of difference.
“Villa don’t have any wriggle room to be making any big transfers at the moment. The thing that could change that is if a player like Dendoncker or Chambers ended up leaving for money and their wages were off the wage bill, then perhaps that would help.
“Obviously, those players would need replacing because Dendoncker in particular has played games recently and Villa would need to replace him.
“But Emery is always of the mindset that he will only buy players that improve the quality of the squad, so we’re not going to be looking for squad fillers and signing players for the sake of it.”
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