Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is ready to dump goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, in favour of a €60m move for Athletic Club Bilbao’s Unai Simón.

That’s the crazy claim from El Nacional, who say Aston Villa and Unai Emery have ‘shown strong interest’ in the Spanish goalkeeper.

They report that Emery hopes to be able to celebrate qualification for next year’s Champions League with a series of star signings in the summer transfer window.

One of his intended signings, at least according to El Nacional, is Simón as he ‘does not quite trust’ his current number one Emiliano Martínez.

The Argentinian goalkeeper is described as ‘excessively irregular’ and prone to making mistakes that cost Aston Villa in the goals conceded column. He also wants a goalkeeper who is good with his feet and seems to think Simón would be better than Martínez in that department.

Simón has had a memorable campaign with Athletic and is number one for Spain too and that’s led to Aston Villa having focused on him.

He has a €60m release clause in his current deal but Emery is said to believe that is worth paying and Athletic even have a replacement lined up if a move happens.

Now, we would be at pains to say this is all majorly unlikely. Martínez is undeniably one of the stars at Aston Villa and has helped them far more times than he has let them down, certainly since Unai Emery took charge.

It’s also not an area Aston Villa particularly need to focus on, particularly if they are building for the Champions League next season.

Hence us describing this claim as ‘crazy’ at this point, and certainly one we can’t see actually becoming a reality.