With some of the most ambitious and deep-rocketed owners in the Premier League pulling the strings from up above, Aston Villa are not the sort of club likely to let sentimentality stand in the way of progress.
Both Tyrone Mings and John McGinn will always have a special place in the heart of Villa supporters and rightly so. Captain’s past and present; Mings and McGinn played a central role in the club’s rise from the depths of the Championship back to the Promised Land. Their drive, determination and passion never in question.
But if Aston Villa are to make the next step – from mid-table also-rans to European challengers – then some difficult decisions will need to be made. Mings turns 30 next year. And if the England international has not ironed out those kinks in his game by this point in his career – damaging lapses in concentration never too far away – then he might never do so.
McGinn, meanwhile, has declined notably in recent months; a once-irrepressible, indefatigable midfielder linked with a £50 million move to Manchester United not so long ago struggling to exert his usual influence on proceedings.
Now, reports linking Aston Villa with potential big money moves for two players Unai Emery knows like the back of his hand suggest that Steven Gerrard is not the only one who could be made to pay for a disappointing start to the current campaign.
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa want La Liga duo Mikel Merino and Pau Torres
Pau Torres, Villarreal’s £40 million centre-half, worked with Emery at Villarreal.
“Pau Torres is an amazing player,” Emery told Football London of the Spain international, linked via 90Min. “I think he’s top. I’ve been a coach at Sevilla, PSG, Arsenal and I’ve never seen a centre-back like Pau Torres.
“I think he’s going to play at the highest level. He’s playing now in the national team but he can play in the top teams in Europe very soon.”
Left-footed, excellent in the air and armed with line-breaking passes aplenty; Torres would almost certainly take Mings’ place in Emery’s defence should he arrive.
Mundo Deportivo, meanwhile, reports that Emery would jump at the chance to take Real Sociedad playmaker Mikel Merino to the Midlands. Merino, dubbed the ‘best player in La Liga’ by Sociedad coach Imanol Alguacil, has a £55 million release clause.
A colossal fee. But not necessarily out of reach for Aston Villa’s billionaire owners; Wes Edens and Nayef Sawiris more than happy to put their money where their mouth is. It’s unlikely a coach with Emery’s CV would have signed on the dotted line, either, without the promise of backing.
A John McGinn upgrade?
No player in Spain’s top flight has more assists than Merino this season.
The former Newcastle United starlet, like McGinn, is a left-footed central midfielder. A more cerebral, technical one; an exquisite passer of the ball capable of carving apart opposition defences like a plump Thanksgiving turkey. Merino offers more than McGinn in the final third, while his defensive numbers are almost identical to the Scot’s too.
He averages 2.4 tackles per game to McGinn’s 2.5, and actually makes more interceptions per 90 minutes (WhoScored).
Whatever happens over the next few months, the contributions John McGinn and Tyrone Mings made to the Aston Villa cause will never be forgotten.
But, as George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘progress is impossible without change’.
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