Sources: Traore one of three Aston Villa stars in line for January exits as Gerrard clearout plan revealed
Aston Villa will listen to offers for three of their senior attacking stars in January after Steven Gerrard ordered a mini clearout, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.
This site revealed last Friday (26 November) the new manager is planning to recruit a centre-back and central midfielder in the upcoming window.
A Villa source has told Football Insider that the club are planning to offload two out of three from Bertrand Traore, Anwar El Ghazi and Trezeguet.
They could go on loan or permanent deals in January depending on what offers come in.
The new Villa boss believes he has inherited an unbalanced squad with too many wide attacking players.
He wants to use his first window in charge to strengthen the spine of his team and that could mean some high profile departures.
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As revealed by Football Insider on Tuesday (23 November), Villa will listen to offers for £17million winger Traore in January.
He is currently out injured with a thigh problem sustained in the October international break and has not started a league match all season. He last featured for Villa in the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham on 3 October.
Trezeguet has been sidelined since April with an anterior cruciate ligament injury that could keep him out for close to a year.
El Ghazi is the only one of the attacking trio to make Gerrard’s first two matchday squads against Brighton and Crystal Palace.
He came off the bench in both games, playing the last 13 minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace as a replacement for Leon Bailey.
In other news, Kieran Maguire shares “great” Aston Villa verdict after £100m reveal.