Aston Villa should complete 'three full international quality' signings after Nicolas Jackson - expert
Aston Villa should complete up to three more significant signings before the end of the transfer window to avoid a disastrous season.
That is the opinion of former senior Villa scout, Bryan King, speaking exclusively to Football Insider.
Ibrahim Mbaye will be the next player to join Villa in the coming hours, after a £47million fee was agreed with PSG on Friday.
Nicolas Jackson has also joined from Chelsea in a deal worth up to £65m, and will likely make his debut against Arsenal on Monday amid a late flurry of activity at Villa Park.
It has been a hugely dramatic summer for Unai Emery's squad, which now looks completely transformed from the one that won the Europa League in May.
Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne, Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez have all departed the club, with Villa largely targeting young players to replace them.
'I'm just wondering who's running Aston Villa'
When the signing of Mbaye is confirmed, Villa will have brought in nine new players this summer.
It has been a complete overhaul of the team that secured Champions League football last season, but one largely not by choice.
The likes of Konsa, Rogers, Martinez and Watkins all made it clear that they would like to pursue moves elsewhere, and Villa have reluctantly agreed.
In the cases of Tielemans and Digne, release clauses have left them with no choice at all. There is hope around the players that have arrived, but it is a tall task for Emery to gel so many new players together so quickly.
"I mean, everything seems to be passing Villa by. How can you get rid of all these players? That's what I can't understand," King told Football Insider.
"You win a trophy, you qualify for Champions League, and then you get rid of, is it five or six internationals he's got rid of? Six full internationals."
He continued: "I think Aston Villa will want at least two or three more full international quality players coming into that football club before Tuesday.
"Will they go for [Jack] Grealish? How can you restore any kind of faith with the supporters with the kind of names that are being mentioned? After the players that have been very successful have now left the football club.
"I'm just wondering, who's running this football club? Is it Emery? Or is it the owners? Because whoever's come up with this strategy of selling six of your best players, or five of your best players, I don't think I've ever seen it before."
What do Villa need before the deadline?
A new centre-back is still a must for Villa before the transfer deadline on Tuesday, with Konsa still yet to be replaced.
Bids have gone in for Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Joel Ordonez, but injury concerns saw a deal for the latter backed out of, while negotiations are ongoing with Southampton for the former.
It remains to be seen whether those talks come to fruition, but Emery will almost certainly demand something is done before the deadline.
Victor Lindelof, Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings are currently his only senior options at centre-back, with a Champions League campaign set to place a huge demand on that backline.