Unai Emery’s maintains stony silence on Ollie Watkins following his absence in Brighton defeat

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery maintained stony silence on estranged striker Ollie Watkins following a 4–0 loss against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday, adding further fuel to the fire over reports that the striker refused to play the opening game of the season.

Watkins was not included in the matchday squad, and with strikers Brian Madjo and Tammy Abraham also missing out due to injuries, Emery was forced to rely on attacking midfielder Emi Buendía to play up top. The move proved to be a disaster, as Buendía could not do much as Villa capitulated in stunning fashion, going 4–0 down inside 31 minutes, in a game where new signing João Gomes was also shown a red card following a foul on Georginio Rutter.

Emery was asked about Watkins’ absence from the matchday squad for the game. In return, the Spaniard observed a few moments of silence before saying, “This question is for him. I can answer only with my silence.” Emery was then asked if Watkins had refused to play, to which he said, “I think you can call him and you can call his agent and he can respond.”

“He [Watkins] can only explain his answer, I can’t,” Emery added.

Watkins has been the subject of interest from Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal, who have put in a number of bids to acquire the veteran English striker, all of which have been rejected by Villa thus far. Watkins has been attracted by the prospect of the move, but Villa do not countenance a sale at this stage of the window, having lost a lot of the players who were key contributors to their Champions League-qualifying, Europa League-winning campaign last season.

Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans, and Lucas Digne have all departed. Emi Martínez is expected to go through by the end of the window as well, while Amadou Onana is out for the season after tearing his ACL while playing for Belgium in the FIFA World Cup.

When asked about the constant player turnover every transfer window for Villa, Emery answered, “This problem [with the transfer market] … we had every season and every season we overcame it. It’s something we have to accept and always we reacted, especially the players. This is something hard for us every year but we are calm. With this result, it’s more difficult to explain but calm, work, be positive and find solutions for the next week and after the transfer window.”