Aston Villa record breaker tells Unai Emery what to do about Marcus Rashford transfer 'risk'
Darren Bent has told Unai Emery to take the ‘risk’ of signing Marcus Rashford for Aston Villa.
Bent, who was once the club’s record signing when he joined from Sunderland for £24million in 2011, was speaking about the increasingly likely prospect of the striker leaving Manchester United and coming to Villa Park on loan.
The transfer seems to be developing with reports the 27-year-old has said his farewells at United and that he has agreed personal terms with Villa. Unai Emery was tight-lipped about the prospect after Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Wolves.
However, asked whether a deal for Rashford was a gamble worth taking, Bent told Sky Sports : “You'd have to say so. Maybe his form of of recent times would suggest not, but I think when you've got a player who you know he's got the ability, we've seen him in the past get incredible numbers, score incredible goals, if you can find that Marcus Rashford.
“Losing Jhon Duran would be a big miss for him, I believe, if you can get Marcus Rashford even at half of what we know he can do, then I think it's certainly a risk worth taking, but that's got to come from Marcus unfortunately.
“We've had different managers trying to get the best out of him. It hasn't worked. I think for himself personally, he's got to look at himself and if he can find that form, I think Aston Villa's a great landing spot for him.”
The 40-year-old insists he was not surprised to see Villa rebuff Arsenal’s attempt to sign Ollie Watkins. “£60 million? There was no way on this planet Unai Emery was going to let him go. We've seen how much faith Unai's got in Ollie Watkins.
“We saw it when he first came in, it was Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins with a front two, one of the big decisions he made was, ‘I'll let Danny Ings go’.
“He's done it again with Jhon Duran, you think ‘How can you lose one of them? You've only got one centre forward’. But he believes in Ollie Watkins that much and his performances since he got in the Premier League for Aston Villa have been exceptional, and that's probably why when Emery’s gone ‘Ollie Watkins, you're my man. I trust in you’. He was never going anywhere.”
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