Kieran Maguire salutes ‘clinical’ Aston Villa after new January transfer plan revealed
Aston Villa would be smart to target only vaccinated players when it comes to their forward planning in the transfer market.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about Villa boss Steven Gerrard’s recent comments.
Per The Sun on Monday (13 December), Gerrard said he was “sure” Villa would consider vaccination status when assessing January transfer targets.
Villa have several confirmed cases of Covid-19 and were forced to call off their match against Burnley scheduled for yesterday (18 December).
Maguire insists that targeting stars who have had their jabs is a shrewd strategic move in the current climate.
“When you’re recruiting anybody for any job, you do a risk assessment,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“One of the risks considered is whether the person is going to be able to deliver their services when expected.
“Regardless of one’s views on the vaccine, you are less likely to contract Covid and there are implications for transmission as well.
“So Villa are not doing this from a moral or ethical stance, and they are not trying to force players.
“But purely from a risk point of view, you have to be clinical and you can understand why they have taken this approach.
“There is always an element of risk in January anyway because a player might not be 100 per cent match fit or whatever.”
Football Insider revealed in November this year that Villa are lining up two A-list signings ahead of the winter window.
It is understood that the priority is a new centre-back and defensive midfielder.
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