“Confident” - Smith Expecting A Busy Week For Villa In The Market

With a dearth of options upfront, with both Wesley and Keinan Davis missing games owing to injury, Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith made the choice that Jonathan Kodjia simply wouldn’t make the cut – and there are plenty in the fanbase who agree with that assumption and have no bones about the fact we partially cashed in on him the other week – adding a striker or two in the month of January was absolutely key for us.

Having picked up Mbwana Samatta from Genk for a reported £8.5million, Smith had made no secret of the fact he was hoping to get two signings in to bolster our attack, having already added Danny Drinkwater and Pepe Reina, and speaking to the Birmingham Mail ahead of this evening’s clash with Leicester City in the EFL Cup semi-final second leg tie at Villa Park, he remained confident that we would have another new face before the end of the week and deadline slamming shut this weekend.

“As confident as I can be. We’ve got a list of names we’re working on to get them over the line. Obviously, Friday night is the deadline. We’ll continue to try and push them over the line. I’m as confident as I can be.”

With some players settling more than others, and impressing more than others, the whole squad needs additional quality even if we are focused on up top, so whether we can read into ‘push them’ as meaning more than just another signing and possibly two or more, well, we’ll have to see what Friday night brings us.