Jonathan Kodjia has been brilliant for Aston Villa this season, and Steve Bruce is seemingly bracing himself for interest.
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce
Steve Bruce has insisted that Aston Villa will do everything they can to keep Jonathan Kodjia at the club beyond the summer, but added that interest from one of the top Premier League sides may see their hand forced, the Birmingham Mail reports.
Kodjia has been excellent during his first year at Villa Park, scoring 17 times in just 31 Championship games, including both goals in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Norwich City.
And while Bruce conceded that one of the top clubs pursuing the Ivory Coast international’s signature may be too difficult to turn down, he insisted that the Villans should be able to keep him this summer.
“I’m sure we will do everything in our damnedest to keep hold of him but football is football,” he said, as reported by the Mail.
Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia celebrates scoring their second goal
“How can he be denied if Chelsea come in?” He added. “You can’t deny that but he knows that he’s in a big football club and he’s well-liked by everybody concerned.
“We don’t want to talk about selling, we just want to add to the team.”
Aston Villa’s Jonathan Kodjia
Although Bruce’s men have probably left it too late to make a play-off charge – they are currently five places and 10 points off the top six with seven games to go – they have given their fans the smallest amount of belief that a continuation of their current run could see them put more pressure on the promotion chasers.
More likely however, this current run is giving the fans reason to be optimistic that they have the foundations in place to challenge for promotion next season, and keeping Kodjia will undoubtedly be a big part of maintaining that optimism.
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