A claim has emerged on Aston Villa and their pursuit of Villarreal's Arnaut Danjuma ahead of the January transfer window...

What's the talk?

Journalist Dean Jones has suggested that the Villans may need to jettison one of their top players in order to open the door to a swoop for the Dutch attacker.

The reporter told GIVEMESPORT: “He is such a good player that I can believe they will be looking at him.

“But the problem is that a major exit probably does need to happen first for this to open up.”

The Mirror recently reported that the former Bournemouth man is one of Unai Emery's targets ahead of next month after the pair worked together at Villarreal last season and at the start of the current campaign.

Time to cash in

If a sale is needed to open up room for Danjuma to arrive then Villa must decide to ruthlessly ditch Brazilian attacking midfielder Philippe Coutinho.

The club snapped the former Liverpool gem up from Barcelona on a permanent deal in the summer, reported to be worth a fee in the region of €20m (£18m).

GOAL recently claimed that Coutinho is keen on an exit from Villa Park, merely months after he joined on a permanent basis, and touted him with a potential return to his home country in Brazil.

Emery must now sanction the midfielder's exit in the coming days and weeks in order to then replace him with Danjuma in the January window.

Coutinho has scored five goals and provided three assists in 32 Premier League appearances for Villa since January of this year, which includes zero goal contributions in 13 outings as he has flopped in the current campaign.

Danjuma, meanwhile, has plundered 12 goals and three assists in 32 La Liga outings for Villarreal since the start of last season. He also scored six goals and produced one assist in 10 Champions League starts for the Spanish side in 2021/22, which shows that he has the quality to make an impact at the top level of club football.

Journalist Casey Evans tweeted that the Dutch international can "conjure pure magic out of absolutely nothing" last season and put him in the same bracket as Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr.

The 25-year-old wizard's impressive statistics for Villarreal back that up and suggest that he would be a big upgrade on Coutinho by offering a much greater goal threat at the top end of the pitch, which is why Villa must ditch the Brazilian to facilitate a swoop for the ex-Cherries marksman.