The final desperate attempts to secure Aston Villa players away from the club. As reported, however, by Birmingham Live's John Townley, Villa are not even going to entertain the possibility of seeing the forward leave.
There are, of course, several other outlets that continue to push the narrative of Villa looking to offload the England international. This belief stems from the misguided assumption that Villa have to sell off players in order to remain in compliance with PSR and SCR. What is not already being taken into consideration, though, is that the club has already done enough to be more than afloat in terms of the financial aspects.
Instead, this is a continued ploy by others who would like to see their own club fill some of the shortcomings on their interested roster of choice with a quality player from Villa who would presumably come at a cheaper than usual price due to the 'fact' that Villa 'have' to get rid of everyone in order to even continue existing as a club.
What this latest report should show, once again, is that the club operation side of Villa is actually quite intact, and they have done an excellent job of navigating the unfair system that is set up to protect the interests of the 'big six.'
Watkins staying at Aston Villa
For Watkins, there is not any particular reason for him to leave. He is certainly already a Villa legend, and his rate of play will almost assuredly see him called up for England for next year's World Cup, particularly when considering the lack of forward options overall that Thomas Tuchel would have to choose from.
Everyone else may insist that Watkins and all other regular starters are up for grabs. That could not be further from the truth. The claret and blue will remain as strong and competitive as last season.