Aston Villa boss Unai Emery responds to claims he wants reunion with Arsenal flop Matteo Guendouzi

boss has not distanced himself from links to old Arsenal charge Matteo Guendouzi and says he is keen to keep improving his squad.

The Spanish coach has overseen an upturn in performances and results since taken charge at Villa Park at the backend of last year but is keen to bring in reinforcements in January, quickly securing a deal for Real Betis left-back Alex Moreno.

He is also looking at bolstering his midfield options and, according to reports in France, about a possible reunion.

Villa value the French international at just shy of £30million, but the Ligue 1 side are believed to be holding out for a fee closer to €45m (£40m) – over four times what they paid Arsenal.

While Emery did not want to get into the specifics of any potential move for Guendouzi he did little to play down the speculation – though any deal is likely to hinge on offloading other players first.

‘I can’t speak about players potentially coming here because at the moment we didn’t do nothing about it,’ said Emery at a press conference on Thursday.

‘Some players, of course, if I know them, could be a good possibility to bring them and to be with us.

‘At the moment the club is hoping to add some more players in the squad.

‘At the beginning we were speaking about the possibility of some players to leave and if, like Cameron Archer, he left first, we have more players in the squad now with this possibility to leave.

‘If we can do it then we can add some players, but not specifically speaking about one name like Matteo.

‘The possibility is to improve and have better balance in the squad with different profiles and trying to improve every time the players in the team.’

Guendouzi has performed excellently at Marseille, first on loan and then after joining permanently, and even earned a place in Didier Deschamps’ France squad for the World Cup.

Although he fell out with current Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, he enjoyed an excellent relationship with Emery and both men have spoken glowingly about each other since leaving north London.

The Gunners are believed to retain a sell-on clause which gives them a percentage of any future profit – which claim could be as high as 15% – which means they could pocket around £4.5m if Marseille manage to secure their £40m asking price.

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