Unai Emery admits Aston Villa still have 'work to do' in transfer market

Alex Moreno is poised to become the 12th senior player to leave this summer, with Marco Bizot and Evan Guessand the only two additions so far.

Speaking on Friday, Emery admitted further players could leave before the September 1 deadline.

Yet the main focus is now on incomings, with the boss keen to add a centre-back and at least one more attacker.

Villa have been in talks with Chelsea over a loan move for Nicolas Jackson, while there remains hope of bringing back Marco Asensio from Paris Saint-Germain.

"The club are working hard to get our structure as strong as possible with the players in the squad, trying to get two players for each position," said Emery. 

"There is still work to do, maybe even some players more are leaving and we will have to sign and complete the squad with some players.”

Moreno is on the verge of joining Girona on a free transfer, with Villa expected to retain a 40 per cent sell-on clause for the 32-year-old left-back.

The club’s business has been limited by their need to comply with Uefa’s financial fair play rules, which has meant any purchases must be off-set by sales. 

Emery hinted at some frustration at how difficult it had been to move certain players on.

“The first reason now why we are missing something in our structure and in our squad is because some players left one week or two weeks ago when we were expecting to a deal before,” he said.

“We are working and we have some solutions to try to fix it. But we have to be alert, keep going. 

“The players we have now is enough to compete but thinking all season, thinking hopefully we will face more than 50 matches, we will have to get balance players in the squad and add more players to it."

Andres Garcia and Ross Barkley both remain out injured for Saturday’s trip to Brentford.