Ollie Watkins is relishing a busy campaign with Aston Villa next season as Unai Emery’s side look to compete on all fronts. Villa qualified for the Europa Conference League play-offs with a seventh-placed finish last season, and will play a two-legged tie next month in order to book their place in the group stage. Emery is targeting silverware next term, but won’t allow Villa’s form in the Premier League to be affected by their exploits in Europe. If Villa go far in the Europa Conference League, they could end up playing in excess of 50 matches next season. Emery has an intense pre-season programme planned for his squad this summer, and it all begins with a friendly against Walsall on Saturday, before they jet off to the USA next week for the Premier League Summer Series.
Ollie Watkins said: “We’ve gone straight back into it, obviously there’s been a lot of running but we’re doing similar sessions to what we were doing in the middle of the season, so it’s nice to get back using the balls and back to the normal routine. Pre-season tours are always a bit long with all the travelling and stuff, but we get to play a lot of other Premier League sides out there so it will be good to see where we are and get that chemistry before the first game of the season and see where we come up against them.”
Asked about the potential of a busy calendar next season,
Ollie Watkins said: “There is that excitement, obviously especially [playing] at Villa Park. I am looking forward to seeing what that is like. I haven’t quite got to grips with it yet, I’ll see what it’s like when we play our first game and take it from there but I’m just focusing on getting in a good pre-season, staying fit and no injuries and then looking forward to the start of the season. We’re very privileged to do this as a job, so even though we have a lot of games, it’s what you want to have. You want to be playing every few days and testing yourself in competitions. Not only in Europe, but we want to try and push on in the FA Cup and try and win something this year, so I am looking forward to it.”
Watkins scored 15 goals last season, which was his best return since joining Villa back in 2020. He bagged 13 times under Emery after only scoring once in his first 11 under Steven Gerrard. Speaking about his targets for the new campaign,
Ollie Watkins said: “Just to better last season. Last season’s done now, it was my best end to the season. From when the manager came in I picked up and collectively as a team we finished strong, but I’m always looking to improve and develop and next year will be better than last year. I think we can definitely get better. We have still a lot to learn, but we picked up a lot of points against top teams last year and I think if we can, you know, pick a few points from other places then we can we can push on and definitely finish in the top seven.”
