Unai Emery is reportedly planning on making former Arsenal and Manchester United target Pau Torres his first Aston Villa transfer having finally arrived in the Midlands.
The Spaniard was confirmed as Steven Gerrard’s successor at Villa Park last month but officially did not start work until this week. In the brief time he has had as boss, he has been assessing his squad with his Villa debut set to come against United on Sunday afternoon.
He will only have a couple of matches in charge before the Premier League takes an extended break for the World Cup in Qatar. Yet it appears that he has already started planning additions to his current crop of players.
According to Spanish outlet La Razon, talented defender Pau Torres is on Emery’s list of potential signings ahead of the January transfer window.
He has been linked with moves to the Premier League in the past - Man Utd and Emery’s former employers Arsenal having been noted as admirers of his abilities. In the meantime, Tottenham and Manchester City have also been linked with a move for Torres previously.
It remains to be seen whether Villa will be able to complete a move for the centre-back but his current club Villarreal are not in a particularly strong negotiating position. He has just a year-and-a-half remaining on his current deal and has a €65m (£56.6m) release clause written into that particular contract.
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Villa could benefit from adding another centre-back after summer signing Diego Carlos was struck down with a long-term injury shortly after signing, whilst none of Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Jan Bednarek or Calum Chambers have been particularly convincing this season.
Away from Torres, Emery also reportedly has a couple of other players in mind at his former club - Nicolas Jackson and Yeremy Pino.
In the meantime though, he will have to make do with the current crop of players in the Midlands and has underlined his desire to get them performing to their true abilities.
"I know and I watched matches, they are good players but they are now underperforming.” Emery said at his first Villa press conference. “They are now less confident than usual. My first step is to help them achieve their best performance during each training, each match and being together.
"Ambition is very important. With ambition you can think in short term because if the next matches you do not win it’s going to be difficult. I want to improve first the players’ confidence, I believe in them but I know they are underperforming and short-term is the first step I want to do.”
