Unai Emery reveals Aston Villa are 'planning' for transfer as Moussa Diaby decision explained
Unai Emery is happy with Diego Carlos but the Brazilian defender could still leave the club before the summer transfer window closes
Unai Emery has confirmed Aston Villa are planning in case Diego Carlos leaves the club in the final two weeks of the transfer window.
The Villa boss stressed that he will be happy for the 31-year-old centre-back to continue in his squad after this month, but admitted he may still depart depending if the club's valuation is met. Fulham, who are keen to bolster Marco Silva's defensive options, saw a bid rejected for Carlos earlier this month.
Villa have identified Feyenoord defender Lutsharel Geertruida as a target to improve Emery's defence and talks with the Dutch club continue to find an agreement. Asked whether Carlos' future hinges on a new defender coming in, Emery said: "Until the last day in the transfer window, I am always open in case some players could sign. If we think we can improve - we will do it.
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"It’s the same situation for players in the squad. Diego Carlos is in the squad travelling to West Ham and it’s not changing the circumstances we have now. He’s going to be here. We plan in case he is leaving - we are planning it."
Villa have so far signed seven players in this window at a cost of around £130m. They've taken in a similar amount from player sales, with Cameron Archer becoming the latest to leave after completing a £15m move to Southampton.
Douglas Luiz followed Tim Iroegbunam and Omari Kellyman out the door back in June, before Moussa Diaby became the second high profile departure from the squad. The winger, who only joined Villa last summer, moved to Al-Ittihad for £50.5m.
Speaking of Diaby's move, Emery said: "Firstly, we received a very good offer from Saudi Arabia and he himself told me he had decided he wanted to accept it. And we opened the door for him because when one player was giving us this message, we weren’t refusing him to go and it was a good deal for us.
"I was happy with him, he played good performances. The first year his adaptation was good - not fantastic - but enough to help us. I was thinking he could develop more and improve more on last year, but we accepted it because it was a good deal for us."
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