So far so good for Unai Emery this season at Aston Villa albeit one of his first-team players is unlikely to think so.
The Spaniard has the Villains playing brilliantly so far this season and a current fifth place in the Premier League hasn’t been arrived at by accident.
However, he may well have a problem on his hands in the form of striker Jhon Duran.
The player has only featured in three games in all competitions this season, and for a total of just 114 minutes according to WhoScored.
Now Noticias RCN are reporting a possible dispute between the 19-year-old and his manager, after the player removed any trace of Aston Villa from his Instagram account and instead replaced them with an image of the controversial Chicago Bulls basketball legend, Dennis Rodman.
Known as a real hardliner if he needs to be, it’s unlikely that Emery will have taken whatever message it was that Duran was trying to send to him lightly.
With a Europa Conference League match against AZ Alkmaar coming up on Thursday evening, should Duran not feature in that match day squad, it’s a fair bet that his Villa ‘career’ will be swiftly brought to an end by his manager.
Emery expects hard work and everyone to be pulling in the same direction, so for Duran to have pulled a stunt like this is ill advised at best.
You may have talent, but at the moment you aren’t better than Ollie.
His work rate, and overall contribution, is less than what we have. A good squad player at the moment. Needs to grow up watch and learn, then he might get a few more chances cus when he has started, he ain’t shown anything.