Unai Emery on Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez Transfer Uncertainty
Unai Emery has ripped the lid off Aston Villa’s uneasy summer, confirming the club have received formal bids for star striker Ollie Watkins and conceding that even a player of his stature could be sold before the window closes.
Watkins, the spearhead of Villa’s Europa League triumph with five goals and two assists, has emerged as a major target for Saudi Pro League giants Al-Hilal. His form, his age, his profile – all of it has drawn heavyweight attention. And Emery did not pretend otherwise.
“We have an issue with him, it's clear. He is our player. We have had offers for him, I don't want to sell him but it can change because if it's a good option for him and the club and I can replace him in the squad, this is the routine we have and we did before with the players who are leaving,” the Villa manager told reporters when pressed on the 30-year-old’s future.
That “routine” has already ripped through this squad.
Ezri Konsa has gone to Arsenal for £51 million. Morgan Rogers has joined Chelsea in a British record £117 million deal. Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne have both moved on in the same window. Strip away that much experience and quality, then dangle the prospect of losing your main striker, and the picture turns stark very quickly.
Watkins has been Villa’s reference point since arriving from Brentford in 2020, scoring 108 goals in claret and blue. Emery’s admiration is obvious, but so is his realism with the clock ticking down.
“With Ollie, he is here, for me he is a fantastic striker, we have always believed in him,” Emery said. “Now he is our player, there are 10 days more or less to finish the transfer window, we will see what happens, I'm happy with him, if he is staying with us he will continue playing his level. If he leaving it's because it is good for three ways, one is him, another is the club and another is the team.”
Ten days. One striker. Three parties to satisfy. The margin for error is thin.
Martinez situation adds to Villa’s unease
The turbulence is not confined to the top end of the pitch. Behind them, the future of 2022 World Cup winner Emi Martinez is just as uncertain.
A move to Juventus recently collapsed over the fee, but the Argentine’s appetite for a new challenge has not gone away. Villa have already acted, bringing in Japan international Zion Suzuki from Parma for £30 million, not as a project but as immediate competition.
“We have two excellent goalkeepers, of course we signed Suzuki not for the future but for now,” Emery explained. “He showed his capacity to get his performance to our level. He will need to adapt to us but he is playing at this level. Martinez transmitted to us the possibility to have another challenge in his career. Even last year, he was thinking in case he can have one possibility to change for his challenges.”
That line – “not for the future but for now” – lands heavily. It underlines how seriously Villa are taking the possibility of life after Martinez.
Emery made it clear this is not a sudden twist. Martinez’s desire to test himself elsewhere has been a recurring theme, even as he delivered at an elite level in Birmingham.
“He didn't do it last year and he performed fantastic with us,” Emery said. “This year, again, he transmitted us the possibility to have another challenge and we decided to sign Suzuki because I think he's a fantastic goalkeeper.”
A team pulled apart
Put Watkins and Martinez on the departure list alongside Konsa, Rogers, Tielemans and Digne, and the scale of the rebuild becomes brutal.
If both the striker and the goalkeeper go, Villa will have effectively sold more than half of the starting XI that lifted the Europa League trophy just two months ago. This is not gentle evolution. It is major surgery on a team that had finally found a winning formula.
Every exit piles more pressure on recruitment. Every day lost in the market increases the risk of entering the season undercooked.
And the season does not wait. Villa open their Premier League campaign away to Brighton on Sunday, with Emery trying to prepare a side that might look very different again by the time the window slams shut.
The question now is not just who Villa can keep. It is whether they can rebuild fast enough to stay with the pace they set in Europe last season.
