CASH IN NOW BEFORE DUO GO
SMITH’S ALERT TO SOUTHGATE
DEAN SMITH has warned Gareth Southgate that two of hisastonvilla stars cannot wait forever for England to come calling. Villa’s boss said the clock was now ticking as far as Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa were concerned after both received approaches from abroad.
Right-back Cash is being chased by Poland while Konsa qualifies for Portugal – with the latter now becoming a hot tip for inclusion.
Southgate has four international camps before the nextworld Cup and Smith said that his players have a decision to make – and sooner, rather than later.
Thevilla boss said he would be happy to take a call from the Three Lions chief – and revealed that Cash has already asked for his advice, while he expects Konsa to do likewise.
He said: “We’re 13 months away from aworld Cup and every player will have eyes on it.whether that’s Matty Cash going with Poland or Ezri Konsa going with Portugal.
“They now have the opportunity to do that.
“Ezri has been a model of consistency since he got into the first team at Villa. He will want to go to Qatar and both he and Matty will want to give themselves the best chance they can of doing it.
“I believe their first choice would be England. If not, they’ll only wait so long before other countries come calling.
“I don’t know when they’ll have a decision to make – Matty Cash has already said he would like a discussion with me to get my thoughts on it.
I’m sure Ezri will want the same.
“It will be down to them. I can give them some advice and guidance but it will be down to them. Only they can make that choice.
“Gareth knows I’m here. He knows I’m always available for him to speak to if he wants to know anything about any of my players.”
Villa head to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this afternoon after a morale-boosting triumph at Old Trafford last week – only their second victory at Manchester United in the last 38 years.
Two years ago, this fixture was Villa’s first back in the big-time and Smith (below) believes it will be decent barometer as to how far his club has come.
He added: “It will be a good marker for us. I remember the game well.we were beaten
3-1 and we conceded three in the last 12 minutes.
“We took a lot of plaudits from how we played that day but I was very disappointed because I knew how hard it was going to be that season.
“We think we have a deeper squad this season and that enables us to adapt a lot better. If we have a healthy squad we can go and challenge like we did at Chelsea and Manchester
United.
“I think we have progressed since that first match at Tottenham – they are one of those teams who we feel we can challenge to get into that top half of the Premier League.”