Aston Villa left it late last season but managed to secure Premier League safety on the final day. Dean Smith’s side delivered when it mattered but their real test starts now.
The upcoming Premier League season looks set to be a hugely difficult one. Villa cannot afford to have another campaign like the last one which makes this transfer window a hugely important one.
The Villans have been linked with a whole host of players over the last few weeks. However, the most interesting rumour came out over the weekend as they were linked with a former Premier League star.
The Telegraph reported on Sunday that Dean Smith is keen to sign Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier this summer. The former Tottenham man is the Villa boss’s ambitious summer target according to the report, but signing him might not be as easy as it sounds.
In an interview with the Burnley Express earlier this year, Trippier revealed that he would only return to the Premier League to join one club, but it’s not Aston Villa.
He said: “It’ll happen one day for sure, I’ll 100 per cent be back playing for them. I would love to retire there. That’s my aim, to retire at Burnley. I want to play as high as I can for as long as I can but I’ll know when the time is right.”
“If I’m at Atleti for another two years, that’ll take me to 32, and Burnley’s the only club that I’d come back to England for. After that I’d start my coaching badges and I’d love to coach at Burnley. I’d just love to go wherever Sean Dyche goes.”
If that interview is anything to go by, Villa will not be signing Trippier this summer. The Englishman would have brought lots of experience and quality to the side but Smith might now have to look elsewhere.
Trippier still has two years left on his contract in the Spanish capital. The 29-year-old clearly dreams of a reunion with Dyche and that might just be one way Villa can get him, not this summer but in the future.
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