Aston Villa deal for Emery attacking target opens up as star’s potential departure date announced

Aston Villa ‘could attack’ Udinese for January target Gerard Deulofeu soon, as the forward could reportedly leave the club in the summer.

Unai Emery’s first transfer window as Villa manager saw him add just two new players to his squad. Indeed, Alex Moreno and Jhon Duran were the only two men to walk through the door.

Villa were linked with a number of stars in January, some of which would have reunited with the manager. On that list were the likes of Pau Torres, Nicolas Jackson and Samuel Chukwueze, all from Villarreal.

Another former Emery talent who he was keen to take on board was Udinese’s Deulofeu. The forward spent time under Emery’s management earlier on in his career while he was at Sevilla.

Villa in January. However, surgery on a knee injury stopped any potential deal in its tracks.

In the summer, there could be a chance for Deulofeu to move on. Tuttoudinese reports the forward, ‘could leave’ in the summer after his knee injury blocked his exit previously.

That report suggests Villa could ‘attack’ for the forward when that time comes. However, his injury would obviously need to have subsided by then.

Deulofeu was having a decent season before being struck down by injury. He had been directly involved in 10 goals, following on from a season in which he contributed to 18 goals.

However, he’s not yet back from injury, so there’s no guarantee he’ll be back to the player he was before.

As such, it’s likely Villa will wait to see how he performs when he is back. It’s very unlikely they’ll take a chance on him when he’s not fit, as he might never return to his pre-injury levels.

Tuttoudinese notes that his role might not be the same when he’s back in action. Indeed, they state that his ‘assessment will surely not be that of a year ago’ when he was a ‘protagonist’ at the club.

If he’s no longer one of the key men, Villa might move on to other targets. They’ll be able to afford good players and will want to recruit as well as they can so that they can climb the league.