Unai Emery seemed to resign from the potential exit of Jhon Duran, but insisted that he did not want to sell Ollie Watkins, in the midst of questions about both future.
Aston Villa sealed an automatic place in the last 16 of the Champions League thanks to their 4-2 victory over Celtic on Wednesday and finished eighth in the table.
Prior to the kick-off, however, various British media outlets reported Premier League title hunters who had made Arsenal an offer for Watkins, while further stories emerged during the competition that Duran was approaching during a relocation from January to Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro in in The Saudi Pro in the Saudi Pro in the Saudi Pro competition.
Watkins then scored a decisive third goal, his first in the Champions League, before missing a penalty against Celtic, where the hat trick of Morgan Rogers helps them.
Duran, however, was not in the starting line-up and did not arrive when rumors about his potential exit continued to swirl and Emery did not stand for questions about the result after the game.
“I don't want [to sell Watkins]”Emery told reporters.” It is good news to have offers from other clubs. We want to keep our sporting objective by the players we have in the team.
“Every player can be on the market if all goes well for the player and the club. To get this deal, we will demand. Watkins is our striker.
“If he [Duran] Leave it good news for us because they pay good money and we have developed it in two years.
“A fantastic young player, I always tried to help him with my advice. But the player has the goal and the ambition and when he leaves it, it's because he prefers to go a different way in his career.”
This was the 61st Champions League match of Emery as a manager, who went in third place for competitions among Spanish managers prior to Vicente del Bosque (60). Only Pep Guardiola (179) and Rafael Benitez (95) have succeeded more.
In the meantime, Rogers (22y 187d) became the second-jongest Englishman who scored a hat trick in the Champions League after Wayne Rooney against Fenerbahce in September 2004 (18Y 340D). He also became the first player in the history of the competition who scored twice in the first five minutes of a match.
For the third time in their history, Villa has reached the last 16 of the European Cup/Champions League after 1981-82 and 1982-83, the last of which is their last performance in Europe's Premier Club matches before this season.
And Emery expressed his frustration about the timing of these stories on the great night of Villa while sealing an impressive end to the competition phase.
“We have a lot of speculation around the players in the team, but they show us that they are mature and responsible for these versions,” Emery added.
“We are very proud of our work this year. The Premier League is very difficult to get to the Champions League because there are many strong teams that are contenders.
“But it is very important how we came here, where we started.”
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