Aston Villa’s interest in Villarreal players is ‘starting to border on obsession’, but there are currently only two likely to make the move.
That’s according to Cadena SER, who say that it is only really Pau Torres or Giovani Lo Celso who could be reunited with Unai Emery at Villa Park.
Cadena explain that since the Spanish coach made the move to Aston Villa last year, there have been ‘constant rumours’ about him wishing to sign players from his former club.
Torres, Lo Celso, Dani Parejo, Alex Baena, Nicolas Jackson and Yeremi Pino have all been linked and credited with interest from either Aston Villa, Emery or new director of football Mateu Alemany.
In fact, Cadena say that as soon as one has played three or four good games, it is claimed ‘they want to sign him’. The latest to be linked are Baena and Parejo but they insist there is a ‘considerable gap’ between words and deed.
At the moment the ‘considerable leap’ from interest to concrete move has not been made and the reality is that the only rumours with substance are those around Torres and Lo Celso.
In terms of the defender, his representatives are handing ‘strong interest’ from a Premier League team fighting to get into Europe.
This could be Aston Villa, who ‘have all the numbers’ to offer him a four or five-year deal that would see him double what he earns at Villarreal. It is, though, not definitively known to be them and could be any of the other sides at the right end of the Premier League.
And even if it were, Torres has not yet made a decision on his future and will have to do so ‘in the next few weeks’ before any transfer comes about.
For Lo Celso, the only clear thing is that he needs to return to Tottenham, his parent club, at the end of the season.
At this point in time, it is not clear that Villarreal will push to sign him permanently, and that is likely to depend on whether they can qualify for the Champions League next season. If they do, they may even try for another loan rather than a full deal.
Aston Villa are ‘following him closely’ and that could complicate Villarreal’s plans if they do try and sign him.
Other than that, no other Villarreal players are actually being concretely thought about by Aston Villa and Emery, despite the numerous rumours saying otherwise.
