Owen Hargreaves has urged Ollie Watkins to push for a move away from Aston Villa if he continues to be unhappy under Unai Emery.
Watkins admitted on the weekend that he was ‘fuming’ with Emery for starting him on the bench for each of Villa’s Champions League quarter-final legs against Paris Saint-Germain this month.
‘We’ve put in a variety of hard graft the previous few years to get to that position. And clearly I played 20 minutes against PSG in each games,’ Watkins said after Villa’s 4-1 win over Newcastle United on Saturday.
‘I’m not going to lie. I used to be fuming I wasn’t playing and I let him know that.
‘But he’s the manager at the tip of the day and also you’ve got to respect his decision, but I’m not one in every of those players that’s glad to sit down on the bench.’
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Watkins was Villa’s standout performer within the win over Newcastle as he scored and registered an assist.
Nonetheless, the 29-year-old was surprisingly dropped to the bench for Villa’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Tuesday evening.
Watkins was the topic of a £40 million bid from Arsenal within the January transfer window and Hargreaves believes the striker needs to contemplate his future if he continues to be ignored by Emery.
‘Thing is that they [Villa] need everybody,’ Hargreaves told Premier League Productions.
‘They need Marcus Rashford, they’ve proven that, they need Ollie Watkins firing.
‘They’ve got 4 games left, they’ve just got to recover from the road because in the event that they don’t recover from the road they’re not playing Champions League, everybody’s future looks different, in order that they’ve got to get on board.
‘Obviously Ollie has every right to be upset. But the perfect thing you may do is play like he did against Newcastle, finish the job, rating goals, get them to the highest 4.
‘In the event you’re not glad, play elsewhere, at 29.’
Meanwhile, Tim Sherwood admits he was surprised by Emery’s decision to bench Watkins after his impressive display against Newcastle.
‘It’s really difficult to second guess how Unai Emery thinks about it,’ Sherwood said.
‘I might’ve thought he was certain to start out tonight after what he did against Newcastle. He scored a goal, he caused all of them kinds of problems, created possibilities for his teammates.
‘And swiftly he turns up on the Etihad tonight and he’s sitting on the bench, so you may’t second guess the person [Emery].
‘He’ll have a look at the opposition and he’ll make a call based on that. I said it from the beginning, you’ve got to trust this man, he doesn’t make too many mistakes.’
Asked if Watkins was dropped for his comments about Emery’s team selection, Sherwood replied: ‘No, no. Forget that.
‘I don’t think he’s [Emery] apprehensive about what he [Watkins] has said. I believe he’s genuinely trying to select a team there on the idea of attempting to win this football match.’
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