Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard to take vaccine status into account when looking at future transfer targets
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Published 14/12/2021 at 14:01 GMT
Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard declined to say whether a prospective signing's Covid-19 vaccine status would influence his decision one way or the other, but was clear that it would likely make up part of the club's due diligence on a new arrival. Ahead of their trip to Norwich City on Tuesday night, Villa currently have two players and two staff who have returned positive tests.
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Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard believes that the vaccine status of any prospective signing his club are planning to make will be taken into account in future.
With the January transfer window fast approaching, the Villans – bankrolled by owners Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris – look set to hand Gerrard funds to push their team up the Premier League table.
And given the extent to which Covid-19 is playing havoc with English football, the importance of vaccines is being thrown into even sharper relief.
Ahead of his side’s trip to face lowly Norwich City on Tuesday night, Gerrard said: “We are very thorough and detailed in terms of our recruitment process.
"I’ve been really impressed with Johan [Lange, the sporting director] and the guys around him in recruitment and scouting in terms of the details and work I’ve seen so far.
We look at everything. So I’m sure it [vaccine status] will come up.
“But we’ll obviously make decisions as and when we decide a certain person is the one who could come in and make us better.
“We’ll go across it with a fine-toothed comb.
“But I don’t think it’s right for me to comment on if I would or wouldn’t in that situation.
“But it would certainly come into conversations in the background.”
Gerrard revealed on Monday that Villa have two players and two staff with positive Covid-19 cases, but their match at Carrow Road is set to go ahead.
It begins a crucial Christmas period for Gerrard and his new team.
Four of Villa’s next five fixtures are against teams around or below them in the table, and they will determine whether the club enter 2022 beset by relegation worries, or instead looking up towards the European spots.
If they can continue the transformation in form that Gerrard has brought about in his first few matches at the helm – the Villans have won three of the 41-year-old’s first five matches in charge and only narrowly lost the other two to Manchester City and Liverpool – then it will likely be the latter of those two scenarios.
Gerrard revealed that he expects Emi Buendia to start against the Argentine's old club on Tuesday night. The 24-year-old winger starred in his three seasons at Norwich, but hasn't caught fire yet in a Villa shirt.
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