Jose Mourinho makes 'difficult' point as Aston Villa suffer Paulo Dybala transfer blow

All the latest Aston Villa January transfer window news as Jose Mourinho is confident he will avoid losing one of his star AS Roma players to Unai Emery's side

Jose Mourinho is confident AS Roma will keep Paulo Dybala past the January transfer window, despite interest from both Aston Villa and Chelsea.

The Argentinian striker reportedly has a release clause of in the region of £11million for clubs outside of Italy, which is set to expire on Monday, January 15. According to Italian outlet Corriere della Sera, Villa have joined both Chelsea and Newcastle United in registering their interest in the player, after making contact with Dybala's representatives ahead of the deadline.

Despite the rumoured interest from Unai Emery's side, Mourinho remains confident of keeping his striker past both deadlines of the release clause and the January transfer window, as he aims to keep the Argentinian in Rome until the summer, as claimed by TuttoMercatoWeb.

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The confidence is reinforced by a recent injury setback for Dybala during Roma's one-nil loss to Lazio in the Coppa Italia quarter-final, which Mourinho identified as one of the key reasons his team fell short during the clash on Wednesday. “It was a very difficult half-time break for us,” Mourinho told the media in his post-match presser. “Because losing Dybala is a huge blow for us, I immediately felt we would lose him for the remainder of the game.

“Also, I immediately felt that losing Dybala was not just losing an important player, but also losing our soul, our trust, players looked at each other and it was heavy. We didn’t concede a goal because of this, but then in developing the game we saw it throughout last season, we lose a lot without Dybala. He means a lot to us.”

These are quotes that highlight the importance of Dybala to Mourinho and his plans in Rome, although the decision regarding the release clause is ultimately down to the player if Villa do choose to trigger the option prior to the deadline on Monday.

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