Aston Villa: £75k-a-week star has 'friction with Gerrard' at Villa Park

Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins could still leave the club before the window closes, according to transfer insider Dean Jones.

Watkins is just two years into his £75,000 per-week contract at Villa Park, but he’s being linked with a move away from the Midlands due to reported issues with Steven Gerrard.

Having been left out of the starting XI for the opening day defeat at Bournemouth, then emerged that Watkins’ relationship with Gerrard had taken a turn for the worse.

As a result, Football Insider claimed that Villa were willing to offload the England international, with him and Gerrard ‘not seeing eye to eye’.

Since being dropped for the game on the south coast, though, Watkins has started every game in all competitions alongside Danny Ings and recently netted his first goal of the season at Crystal Palace.

But with the window slamming shut at 11pm on Thursday, Jones thinks that while Watkins leaving Villa can’t be ruled out, he reckons they’d only be prepared to offload him if they’ve got someone lined up to replace him.

He told GIVEMESPORT: “There is also still a possibility that Watkins leaves.

“They probably wouldn’t do that unless they had a replacement lined up, but they have had enquiries over Watkins and there has been a bit of friction between him and Steven Gerrard.”

Valued at just £31.5m by Transfermarkt, signing Watkins for that price would be a great deal for anyone.

Since joining from Brentford two years ago, Watkins has settled in nicely to Premier League football, registering 26 goals and nine assists in 76 games.

His record of better than one goal every three games comes even though several of those outings have come on the wing.

Therefore, Watkins would be a decent signing for any top-flight club,