Unai Emery has urged Ollie Watkins to fire Aston Villa into Europe to boost his England prospects after the striker’s latest snub.
Watkins has been on fire this term leading the line for Villa with 14 goals they have soared to seventh. Victory tomorrow at home over Brighton will confirm their place in the Europa Conference League next season.
But Watkins, who has seven caps, was yet again omitted from Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad, which included Villa defender Tyrone Mings. And Emery admits the striker’s prospects and his development will benefit from European football next term.
Emery assessed: “Ollie is progressing and helping the team a lot. He is scoring goals , sometimes more and sometimes less but he is working very well. His qualities we will need on Sunday and his mind is not going to change from these circumstances.
"He is very competitive , mature and we are here to support him, protect him and try to push him to get our objective and his objective as well. The new challenges you face and you are preparing for, can help you fulfil another objective like to be in the English national team. But to be in the English national team is very difficult. There’s a lot of good players.
“We are very proud of our players when they’re in the national team like Tyrone Mings. Watkins can progress too, he has to be consistent if he’s to get there. The players’ objectives here are always to try to get better and to get the national team and try to improve as well.”
Ashley Young’s England days are over after the 37-year-old veteran stood down from international duty in 2018 on 39 caps. But the versatile star continues to perform at a high level after making 32 appearances this term.
He is out of contract this summer but Emery has suggested he may hand Young a new deal if Villa finish ahead of Spurs to qualify for Europe. Villa’s Spanish coach revealed: “I spoke with him on Tuesday, I told him we are going to decide after the match on Sunday and we’ll talk with the owners. His contract is finishing and he’s the first player we have to speak with.
“I told him to be first focused on the match on Sunday. But he has a lot of experience in Europe, playing in good matches and in good moments in his career. We have the opportunity now to get there again with Aston Villa then we we will decide for every individual circumstances in the squad.”
