Football FanCast
·29 November 2021
Football FanCast
·29 November 2021
Aston Villa are seemingly planning a clearout ahead of the upcoming January transfer window.
That’s according to a report by Football Insider, who claimed that Steven Gerrard has identified three players within his first-team squad who he would be happy to offload this winter, namely Bertrand Traore, Anwar El Ghazi and Trezeguet.
The report added that the 41-year-old would be happy to lose two of the aforementioned trio, either on loan deals or a permanent basis, as the former Liverpool captain believes that his squad is currently unbalanced.
Finally, it is said that Gerrard would like to strengthen Aston Villa’s spine in January, with the manager targeting a centre-back and central midfielder in the winter window.
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With Gerrard currently having a whopping seven options who could realistically start on either wing for Villa, it will perhaps come as no surprise to the club’s fans that the 41-year-old is more than willing to ship at least two of those out in January.
Considering that Traore (£63k-per-week), El Ghazi (£38k-per-week) and Trezeguet (£47k-per-week) are costing the club an eye-watering £148k-per-week in wages, all while the trio have made a grand total of just 12 Premier League appearances so far this season, it is not difficult to understand why Gerrard is eager to move them on this winter.
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Furthermore, the sale of any one of those players could also raise a substantial amount of money for the 41-year-old to reinvest in his first-team squad, with Traore currently worth £18m, El Ghazi £11.7m and Trezeguet £9m – totalling £38.7m.
As such, it would indeed appear advisable for Johan Lange to do all he can to offload two, if not all, of this trio in January. Not only are they wasting a considerable chunk of the club’s weekly wage budget in comparison to their overall game-time, their potential sales could also provide Gerrard with the funds to land a number of his own targets this winter – an outcome which would undoubtedly delight the former Rangers boss.
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