Former Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey has called on Alejandro Garnacho to shut up pundits who have criticized him over the past 18 months.
Garnacho joined Chelsea from Manchester United last summer but struggled to impress at Stamford Bridge before joining Villa on loan in July.
The 22-year-old will become a permanent member of Unai Emery’s squad once he makes a certain number of appearances for the club, but he has made just three Premier League appearances so far this season.
Having not featured in Villa’s last four matches, Garnacho has started to make a better impression in the past fortnight after working closely with Emery during the international break. He also scored in all of Villa’s friendlies against Southampton and Sevilla.
Former striker Heskey wants to see the Argentina international make significant strides at Villa and fulfill the potential he showed at Manchester United a few years ago.
“With young players like Alejandro Garnacho, I would like to see less talk and more action. Less talk and more action, please,” Heskey told Betarades.gr.
“He’s not a bad player, but I don’t want to hear anything from him. I just want to see him play football.
“Do it the easy way. Come play the game and love the game. We don’t need any over-the-top celebration or anything. You need to show us why we’re wrong and we should shut up.”
Garnacho was one of a number of new additions Villa made in the summer as they lost over half of the starting XI that played against SC Freiburg in the Europa League final.
“Considering the team has been torn apart, they’ve actually done reasonably well in the transfer market,” Heskey continued. “The players that left, I mean oh wow. You have to give it to them that they did good business.
“Obviously, it’s sad that they had to sell all their best players, especially because they play in the Champions League. Of course, it also has something to do with the Squad Cost Ratio (SCR). They struggled in that regard.
“But they’ve done pretty well to get the squad they’ve got now. They’ve probably got one of the best managers, for sure.”
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