Ollie Watkins

I don't...

Lautaro Martínez, Álvarez, Ollie Watkins.

I s- I, I, I'm...

It's a big statement, but I'm very happy with Sesko.

And I asked him for a little bit of intel before this.

And he says that if you give him a bit of time under Matt Taylor, he does think they'll be mid-table and really look to push on with that money they got from Ollie Watkins going over to Saudi Arabia, which they didn't really have time to spend before the window shut, but they could change things around in January.

Yeah, up

to

You hadn't scored then, you haven't scored now.

For you, is this harder? Because last season you had a lot of experienced players that you knew would come good, like Tillemans, Ollie Watkins, Esri Konza, whereas now it's a totally new group that you're not quite sure what to expect from them.

But how they are showing us the capacity to respond in difficult moment, they did last year.

And they started on Tuesday showing it as well in Bruges.

They did.

They've been, Ollie Watkins is gone.

Tielemans is gone.

They, they've lost a lot of players, and I don't know how you recover from that.

So do you think, we're going back to Aston Villa.

So do you think Douglas Jackson is a good replacement for Ollie Watkins?

Um, I, yeah.

No, I do.

Certainly the money that has been paid for them, you would presume that they are very pivotal in Unai Emery's plans.

You know, I think the big thing that I'm fascinated about in the attackers, let's say the attacking midfield behind Jackson is that Jackson's such a different player and we're learning this as we go along, but he's such a different player to Ollie Watkins in that he likes to come deep and he likes to have midfielders run beyond him.

I think Garnaccio, you know, if and when he gets up and running, we'll actually really benefit from that.

He's a player who likes running in behind as well.

And you wonder already whether that's Emery just putting a little arm around him and saying, no, right, this is what I want from you.

I want you to stay more central.

And of course, he did that with Ollie Watkins.

Ollie Watkins used to make a lot of those runs down the channel.

Since then, there's been an awful lot of changes at Villa.

This past summer, I've seen the exits of some crucial players like Morgan Rodgers, Esri Konca, Uri Tillemans, Ollie Watkins.

There are more.

And...

I mean, he's so good.

If you're on the Villa beat as a writer, he is so good for an unbelievable line.

My favourite was when he was being asked about Ollie Watkins a few weeks ago, and he just said, ''Silence.'' I thought that was fantastic.

But do you have any sympathy with him and the Villa fans, given everything that's happened this past summer for him? Like, put yourself...

Watkins.

Olly Watkins.

Yeah, I don't think they filled those spots.

So it's going to be a bad season for Villa.