Michael Bridge is interested to see whether or not Unai Emery decides to sign a new Aston Villa striker in January.
Aston Villa fans will have been excited when the news emerged of Emery being appointed as their new manager but were quite quickly brought crashing back down to earth on Saturday afternoon with a crushing 4-0 defeat.
However, that loss may well have only highlighted major issues facing the club and Emery and thus, force the club to dip into the January transfer market once again, especially to add firepower upfront with Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings combining for five goals all season, which isn’t pleasant reading.
Bridge has now claimed live on Sky Sports he’s interested to see how keen Emery is to land a new striker in January.
“I can’t imagine Unai Emery taking this job – as great a club as Villa are – [without] assurances that he will be able to change a few things around in January.
Do Villa need a new striker?
Yes!
No!
“I’d be interested to see if he wants to add a prolific striker in January. So when the transfer shows [return], I reckon we’ll be talking about Villa quite a lot.”
TIF Thoughts on Emery’s Villa plans…
Villa do have two pretty good strikers within their ranks in the form of Watkins and Ings with the pair boasting a combined total of 92 goals in the Premier League during their respective careers, however, that sort of form appears to have alluded them this time around.
If Emery is wanting to ensure Villa move away from the bottom three and at least have a season of mid-table mediocrity, then a new striker, one that’s proven and in form already could be very near the top of his shopping list.
However, January is traditionally a difficult market to deal in as clubs are usually reluctant to lose their star player halfway through a season, so either Villa will have to be creative and perhaps take a punt on a striker or spend crazy money to get the man able to lead the line effectively.