I like Zat Knight. He’s a Villa fan, I’m a Villa fan. That shouldn’t affect how we rate players, but I can’t help letting it be a factor. I was therefore pretty disappointed and a little surprised to learn yesterday morning that he’s left us for pastures new at Bolton. Knight and Bolton have been mentioned in the same sentence a few times recently, but it’s the timing and nature of the move that causes an eyebrow to raise in a quizzical fashion.

According to some reports, Zat travelled to Malaga with the squad, but flew right back to England, had a medical, agreed terms and then flew out to Holland to join his new team mates. Martin O’Neill is notoriously methodical and deliberate in everything he does, one can’t help but wonder what could possibly trigger this sequence of events, if this is indeed how it happened.

We may never know for sure and at the moment there’s also a question mark over the fee, although four million seems to be sticking. I’ve gone with that £4m on MON’s Transfers Page unless better information surfaces. So far this summer, the transfer spend is definitely in the black. If that’s causing you to hyperventilate, please check the summer signing matrix and remind yourself that Brad Friedel signed on this day last year and was only the second signing of the summer.

Zat leaving is also surprising at the moment as prior to Laursen’s injury he was probably considered fourth choice centre back, but with the Great Dane now retired he was left as #3. You might be feeling pretty comfortable in your position right now if your name is Curtis or Carlos. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to Zat, I think he was often maligned in the same way and for the same reasons as Peter Crouch – namely his physique, but he also isn’t among the very best defenders in the league. He’ll surely admit that. But as a lifelong Villa fan there’s something he could have that players of equal ability probably lack – the willingness to be a squad player. To find someone as willing as Zat would be to sit on the bench, but still care as much about the club you’ll have to sacrifice quality. Sorry, that’s how the equation works.

But hang on there, Curtis & Carlos, are they really feeling comfortable?? I doubt they are. MON isn’t going to run with only two centre backs, they know that, you know that, I know that. They might also know that Bolton apparently have quite a roster of centre backs now. They might suspect, as I do, that MON really didn’t want to lose Gary Cahill and has regretted it since. Do you see where I’m going with this??

OK, OK, I’m putting two and two together here and speculating – something I hate – but given the strange timing, which can only have been dictated by Bolton, I can’t help feeling that Cahill might be coming in the opposite direction. Personally, I’ve never been bowled over by him, he’s already demonstrated that he’s less willing than Zat to wait his time and there would be something of the Prodigal Son about it.  I’m probably in a minority there and Cahill would likely receive a warm reception from enough of the fans.

I could be way off the mark about Cahill, but Zat’s exit tells me there’s someone coming, probably more than one. What could MON have said to him that convinced him it wasn’t worth hanging around at Villa?? He’s 29 years old, had a contract at Villa until 2011 and seems level headed enough not to be banging on about getting playing time in order to earn a seat on the plane to South Africa. He started in 25 out of 55 Villa games last season, not bad as a 4th choice for a large part of the season.  What more could he ask for??

Time will tell, but Zat knows something we don’t.  With all due respect to Bolton, if I were a player at Villa park, it would take a pretty bleak looking future at the club for Bolton to look a better prospect.  Maybe that’s just me and I did say the same when Cahill went there, hence my lack of affinity with the player.

I’d like to wish Zat the best for the future, I’m sure we’ll all have a fond eye on his career and look forward to coming up against him again as perhaps he’ll oblige us in the same way as agent Ridgewell has.  I’ll leave you with my top three Zat moments:-

	Villa Park 26/12/08 Zat Scores the equaliser against Arsenal with the sweetest of strikes in another Boxing Day Thrilla from the Villa.
Villa Park 02/09/07 Zat scores on his Villa Park debut against Chelsea.
	Goodison Park 07/12/08 Zat celebrates with Ashley Young in front of the Villa fans after a dramatic 3-2 victory.