Christian Purslow makes 'more strategic' point ahead of Aston Villa's summer transfer window

Aston Villa were many people's so-called winners of the January transfer window after the signings of Philippe Coutinho, Lucas Digne, Robin Olsen and Calum Chambers.

All four have replaced and arguably upgraded the voids left by Anwar El Ghazi, Matt Targett, Jed Steer and Axel Tuanzebe who all departed to Everton, Newcastle, Luton Town and Napoli respectively.

Villa, of course, missed out on Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma after walking away from transfer negotiations with chief executive Christian Purslow now planning ahead for the summer.

Speaking earlier this month, Purslow explained how Villa "view summer and January as one" in terms of their recruitment drive, with focus now on finishing the season as strongly as possible before a big summer of change, both in terms of incomings and outgoings.

Purslow said: "It is a very difficult market, January, and we tend to view summer and January as one.

"It's easier to be more strategic about the summer and, perhaps, you have to be a little bit more opportunistic in January.

"It's absolutely crucial that when a new manager comes in we give them time to have a look.

"Steven arrived in early November and we said, 'Take sort of six or seven weeks, have a look from the inside on where you perhaps want to tweak things and to make a few adjustments. If we can do that in January we will'.

"Also, when I talked about Steven giving his initial feedback, he said, 'Look, I'd like to take the age profile up a little bit. We were the youngest average-age starting team in the league last season. I'd like to have proven winners'.

"That winning mentality is the single-most important thing Steven Gerrard is focused on.

"When we signed Steven Gerrard we knew he'd be a hugely important