Ollie Watkins is having the season and the time of his life at Aston Villa!
To date, this is the 28-year-old’s best season of his career so far and it could end in Aston Villa securing Champions League football and winning the Europa Conference League.
On Thursday night, the team fought and crawled their way to an incredible shootout win over Lille to book their ticket in the semi-finals.
Understandably, goalkeeper and hero on the night, Emiliano Martinez stole the headlines for his two stunning saves as he came back to haunt the people of France.
But, amongst all of that, Ollie Watkins also did his job and scored his penalty that played a part in Villa’s victory.
Ahead of Euro 2024, that’s a signal to a certain Gareth Southgate that he can put away pressure penalties.
Yet, the same nonsense keeps getting spouted out by certain parts of the media when it comes to Watkins’ England striker battle with Ivan Toney.
Glenn Murray claimed on BBC Sport that he would pick the Brentford man over the 19-goal Premier League striker because of his ability from the spot.
When Ahmed Elmohamady heard this, he hit out at those claims by saying ‘what’s going on here’ and labelled it ‘embarrassing’ on Twitter.
Rightfully so, the Villa ambassador is calling out such nonsense and defending a player who should be in with a shout for Player of the Year.
Ollie Watkins v Ivan Toney
“When comparing between 2 players in the same position and preferring one of them over another because he’s good on penalties,” said Elmohamday. “What’s going on here, it’s embarrassing.”
Ollie Watkins deserves Euro 2024 shot with England
The funny thing about all of this is that a number of these players speaking are ex-strikers.
If they were in Watkins’ situation and were told that they weren’t going to be selected for that said reason, then they would be fuming and calling it out.
Watkins deserves to go to Euro 2024 with England. Yes, this Toney talk will continue and many will continue to back him.
But all the Villa man can do is continue to score goals, go past the 20+ barrier in the Premier League, secure a top-four finish and win the Europa Conference League.
And then he has done his job, if Southgate doesn’t select him after that, then it’s his loss.
The post ‘What’s going on here’: Aston Villa ambassador hits out at what he's hearing about Ollie Watkins on BBC appeared first on Aston Villa News.