Unai Emery is determined to keep Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa this month as the club prepare to sell Jhon Duran.
Villa’s 4-2 win over Celtic sent them into the last 16 of the Champions League but the day was clouded by uncertainty over the futures of the club’s two forwards.
Emery confirmed Duran is likely to move to Al Nassr for about £63million and is set to have a medical in London on Thursday.
But Villa were blindsided by a bid from Arsenal for Watkins hours before kick-off. Though Emery accepts every player has his price, he has no wish to sell Watkins.
‘I don’t want (to sell),’ said Emery. ‘For any deal we are going to be very demanding. Ollie Watkins is our striker.
‘There is a lot of speculation around our players but the most important thing is how they respond on the field. They are showing us they are mature and responsible.
Unai Emery insisted that he wants to keep Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa amid Arsenal interest
Mikel Arteta’s side submitted a bid for the striker just hours before the Champions League win
Watkins is a boyhood Arsenal fan and has 10 goals for Villa in all competitions this campaign
‘You know my opinion on Jhon Duran. He is a fantastic player with great potential. I wanted him here, but what does he want? We are all different people with different objectives and we have to respect that.
‘If he is leaving it is because he prefers to go another way in his career. It’s good news for the club because someone is paying good money for him, after we developed him in the last two years.
‘It’s good news to have offers from other clubs. We want to maintain our sporting objectives through the players we have in the squad.
‘To stay at the level we are is the most difficult challenge and maybe we have to sell players to keep this level, but always we must try to replace them with good players.’
There was a celebratory atmosphere at Villa Park when Atalanta’s 2-2 draw at Barcelona confirmed Villa’s place in the last 16, without needing to go via the play-offs.
They will resume action in this competition in March and face one of Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Sporting Lisbon or Club Brugge.
Emery added: ‘I was a bit upset with the players at half-time but in the second half the response was fantastic.
‘When we went 2-0 up, we still had 90 minutes to play and I couldn’t understand why we weren’t being strong in our mentality.
The former Arsenal boss revealed he was upset at half-time after his side let slip a two goal lead
Brenda Rodgers was quick to praise the new Champions League format as his side progress
‘If you lose respect for the opponent in some moments the result can change. But I am very proud of how we have played in the Champions League this year.’
‘We are not contenders to win the competition, but we want to enjoy it, compete well and show our ability.’
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers added: ‘Scottish football gets some stick in England but you can clearly see we have teams with the courage to play and we can still be competitive without the same resources.
‘The new format has been really good. Let’s get ready for the next challenge.’
