With Aston Villa interested in Emile Smith Rowe and Harry Winks, one midfielder is likely to leave – originally posted on Sportslens.com
Conor Hourihane has an uncertain future at Aston Villa this summer. The 30-year-old fell down the pecking order last season, was loaned out to a Championship club in January, is in the final year of his contract and conceded in June that he’ll probably be moving on ahead of the upcoming campaign.
Hourihane has been a fantastic servant in his four years at Villa, but the writing appears to be on the wall as Dean Smith is trying to bring in a central midfielder before the season starts.
Villa have been linked with Arsenal’s Emile Smith-Rowe, Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse and Tottenham’s Harry Winks, but it remains to be seen if they’ll have any success landing one of the highly-rated Premier League trio.
Hourihane currently finds himself behind John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Morgan Sanson and Marvelous Nakamba, so he spent the second half of last season on loan at Swansea City to get regular playing time.
The Ireland international has made a total of 150 appearances since joining Villa from Barnsley in 2017, scoring 29 goals with 23 assists, but the club have now outgrown him. Even new-boy Sanson has been underused since his January arrival.
Hourihane has been unable to dethrone Smith’s regulars in the engine room, so he’s better off finding a club willing to give him opportunities. It remains to be seen where he’ll end up, but he won’t be short of offers regardless.
Stats from TransferMarkt.
Go to Source
Author:Crippy Cooke