Aston Villa News 24/7Aston Villa have completed the loan signing of Kyle Walker, Tottenham’s young right back signed from Sheffield Utd about 18 months ago, before being promptly loaned back and then playing at QPR on loan this season. He’ll be on loan with Villa until the end of the season, I don’t know yet if there is any option to make the move permanent.
I can’t comment on Walker as a player, I honestly haven’t seen him play so far as I can recall, but he’s 20 years old, 18 months younger than Eric Lichaj, but comes with 59 league appearances, although only 2 at Premier League level with Tottenham.
Walker was included in six of the seven England Under 21 squads last season, playing in the first four, but watching the last two from the bench. He was not a part of the squad that travelled to Germany for the final game of 2010 in November, I don’t know if that was due to injury or form. In any case, he’s certainly familiar with Marc Albrighton, Fabian Delph and Nathan Delfouneso.
The move probably suggests that Luke Young‘s injury is significant (how costly will his decision not to move to Liverpool prove to be for us?) and we all know that Habib Beye has no future at the club, but who will be taking him off our hands is a mystery to me at this stage.
Without seeing him play, I can’t say that I hope the deal turns permanent, but I have to confess a discomfort in taking one of Tottenham’s young players on loan – given the way they plucked both Walker and Kyle Naughton from Sheffield; both young right backs, then farmed them out on loan as Spurs no longer take part in the reserve league – if it’s not going to lead to a permanent deal. I don’t think we should be developing Tottenham’s young players for them.
The other concern, while I wouldn’t argue that Lichaj was ready to be first choice right back, with Luke Young out for who knows how long, Beye clearly off, is a 20 year old with little beyond Championship experience an immediate solution? Without wanting to pre-judge, I’d suggest it’s unlikely.
That said, looking to the longer term (something I appreciate is extremely difficult right now), if Walker turns out to be decent and the deal becomes permanent, the prospect of two young right backs in Lichaj and Walker competing for position doesn’t sound too bad to me.
But looking from one more angle; we’re not really in a position to be too choosy at the moment, if we really need a right back and he does the job for the next five months, playing an active part in keeping us up, then great, can’t grumble too loudly about that now can we?
Either way, he’s our player for the rest of the season, I hope he does very well. We may see him as early as Saturday against his old club in the FA Cup.
[Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons]
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6 Comments to “Kyle Walker joins on loan until end of season”
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I don’t understand this at all.
What does it say about Lichaj?
We now have four RBs.
Luke, knackered.
Beye, trouble maker (apparently) who I don’t see us getting rid of.
Lichaj, confidence shattered after shutting out Bale.
And Walker, young kid (18 months younger than Lichaj, 2 prem starts) with a dodgy knee.
His experience in getting us out of a certain relegation fight is, what exactly?
Whereas Warnock is obviously not wanted and we play Clark at LB?
I wouldn’t mind this sort of signing in the summer, after we’ve survived.
But now? On loan?
When we need players that can dig in and get us out of trouble?
I strongly suspect that someone thinks our survival is guaranteed.
And if they’re right, it must be me who’s deluded.
What bothers me is the “nightmare” comments. First of all, I don’t think he was so bad as to be singled out. If I remember correctly, Albrighton also conceded a penalty. Second, he didn’t have any more of a nightmare performance than Collins, Dunne, Cuellar, Warnock, etc. have had off-and-on all season long.
I really have great hopes for Lichaj but it seems like his found his way into GH’s dog house with Ireland and Carew. I hope I’m wrong…
somewhere between 7 and 8 minutes into that game i was writing a tweet that said something along the lines of “lichaj’s having a bit of a ‘mare here”, but had to delete it as he gave away the penalty.
for whatever reason, lichaj had a bad start. he got better, but it *was* a nightmare start for him. balotelli was offside for the 3rd, but it was given and it was lichaj that lost him.
once again, maybe houllier could be more diplomatic, but he only stated a basic fact, lichaj had a nightmare. he did and i say that as a huge fan.
i don’t think he threw him under the bus at all. no more than saying heskey missing a sitter and getting sent off was a huge reason for losing to sunderland.
it’s true, why must the manager sugar coat it to protect the egos of these delicate flowers?
once again, i’ll cite harry redknapp who said that kaboul was “stupid” for getting sent off against newcastle and you know what? kaboul agreed and publicly apologised.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/9326766.stm
shall i hold my breath waiting for heskey to apologise?
“it’s true, why must the manager sugar coat it to protect the egos of these delicate flowers?”
I agree in principle Dan but the difference between a veteran international player like Heskey and a young kid with only a couple of games under his belt is huge. If Heskey misses a “sitter” he may be unhappy but he is not worried that he just missed his only shot in the PL — I’d argue that Lichaj could have exactly that reaction.
Maybe GH gave him a pep-talk in the locker room and made sure he knew that everyone has off days. We never see the whole story.
well, let’s say luke young doesn’t come back, injury finishes him eventually. beye is toast, we know that. that leaves lichaj and, i suppose, cuellar.
cheap wages, no fee, can’t hurt. not top priority, but first available, first in, first to be judged.
It look like loan signings will be the standard this January. Cast-offs and young prospects. Don’t we already have enough of both?