---
title: "Aston Villa: Gregg Evans celebrates Ollie Watkins call-up"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/watkins-england-callup-gregg-evans-ornstein/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "David Comerford"
section: "Aston Villa News"
published: "2022-03-22T07:35:42Z"
modified: "2022-03-22T07:35:42Z"
---

# Aston Villa: Gregg Evans celebrates Ollie Watkins call-up

**Aston Villa journalist Gregg Evans has voiced his delight for Ollie Watkins following the striker’s late call-up to the England squad.**

### The lowdown

[The Athletic](https://theathletic.com/3196311/2022/03/21/ornstein-saka-talks-over-new-deal-european-giants-want-gakpo-bowen-may-miss-europa-league-tie/?source=twitteruk)‘s David Ornstein revealed on Monday that Gareth Southgate had added Watkins to his squad for the Three Lions’ March fixtures against Switzerland and the Ivory Coast in a pair of friendlies at Wembley over the coming days.

With [only two more international windows left](https://theathletic.com/3191024/2022/03/18/rashfords-england-absence-may-feel-surprising-but-his-place-at-the-world-cup-is-under-threat/) after this one before Southgate picks his squad for the World Cup in Qatar, this development bodes well for the 26-year-old, who was notified about his call-up following the 1-0 defeat against Arsenal on Saturday and is poised to join up with his England team-mates today.

Watkins has earned [five caps for his country](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ollie-watkins/nationalmannschaft/spieler/324358) up to this point, the last of which came in October against Hungary.

\[freshpress-quiz id=”389386″\]

### The latest

The Athletic’s Villa correspondent Evans reacted to Ornstein’s update on Monday morning, sharing a link to [the latter’s article](https://theathletic.com/3196311/2022/03/21/ornstein-saka-talks-over-new-deal-european-giants-want-gakpo-bowen-may-miss-europa-league-tie/?source=twitteruk) from that publication.

Evans [wrote on Twitter](https://twitter.com/greggevans40/status/1505814291659857924): “Great news for Ollie Watkins” in relation to the Villa striker’s call-up to the latest England squad.

### The verdict

Watkins may be somewhat disappointed with his goal return so far this season. He has only netted [seven times in 26 Premier League appearances](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ollie-watkins/leistungsdaten/spieler/324358/plus/0?saison=2021), leaving him on course to finish up on around 10 goals.

That would be considerably lower than his [tally of 14](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ollie-watkins/leistungsdaten/spieler/324358/plus/0?saison=2020) in his debut top-flight season in 2020/21, whereas he would surely have been expecting to take a step forward this term.

Nonetheless, there are [only two English centre-forwards](https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/stats/Premier-League-Stats) – Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy – who have scored more non-penalty goals than Watkins in the top flight this season, and the latter has [retired from international football](https://www.goal.com/en/news/why-vardy-no-longer-plays-for-england-could-he-be-called-up/1obk511zazhd8118kk2s146pr7).

On that basis, you could argue that the [£31.5m-rated](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ollie-watkins/leistungsdaten/spieler/324358/plus/0?saison=2020) Villa frontman is still worthy of selection for England.

**In other news, [Gabriel Agbonlahor has made a worrying claim about another Villa player](https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/aston-villa-news/aston-villa-gabriel-agbonlahor-makes-worrying-carney-chukwuemeka-claim-steven-gerrard/)**