As Aston Villa continue to improve under Unai Emery, the club hierarchy need to grasp the nettle and buy the best players available if they want to remain contenders for silverware.
Currently fifth in the Premier League the Villains are unbeaten in the last five, and, despite being bottom of Group E, they’re level pegging with their opponents in their Europa Conference League group.
Clearly the Spaniard is doing something right.
Sporting ace, Pedro Goncalves, also known as Pote, is once again being linked with Villa, Correio da Manha (h/t Sport Witness) noting the existence of an €80m release clause for the player.
The Portuguese giants play Rakow Czestochowa on Thursday whilst Villa take on AZ Alkmaar in the Europa Conference League.
It isn’t clear if there will be eyeballs on the Sporting game from a Villa perspective, however, if the club are serious about their interest in the player, they need to keep tabs on him during their biggest games of the season.
Whether €80m is a little out of their price is a moot point at the moment, and they may consider that release clause slightly excessive given that he’s only managed two goals and one assist in 10 games in all competitions so far this season per WhoScored.