View: Matt Targett looks set to be the one who got away for Aston Villa
Not many eyebrows were raised in January when Aston Villa took the decision to sign Lucas Digne from Everton and send Matt Targett on loan to Newcastle United.
In Digne, Villa were signing a France international who’d played for Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Barcelona and Everton and won plenty of silverware and assisted many goals.
However, the 28-year-old’s time at Villa Park has so far been an underwhelming one since his January switch from Everton.
Digne has found himself in and out of Steven Gerrard’s starting line-up due to niggling injury issues and has just one goal contribution – an assist against Everton – in 10 appearances.
This isn’t about Digne though. It’s very likely that the Frenchman will eventually get fully fit and start to show himself to be a very good player for Aston Villa Football Club.
This is, however, about Targett.
Since joining Newcastle on loan in January to make room for Digne’s arrival, Targett has been in superb form.
According to stats by WhoScored, the former Southampton left-back is the fifth-best rated player at St James’ Park in the entire season despite playing just 12 times for the Magpies.
Targett has averaged 1.6 crosses, 1.3 key passes, 2.3 tackles and 1.6 interceptions per game for Newcastle.
According to an update by football news website 90min on Tuesday [26 April], Newcastle and Aston Villa have a “broad agreement” that Targett will make his loan stay in Tyneside a permanent one for £15million this summer.
That’s an absolute bargain for Newcastle to sign an established, English Premier League left-back who’s been nothing short of brilliant since joining them on loan.
Villa, on the other hand, are stuck with Digne.
He’ll come good eventually, we’re sure of that. However, the decision to offload Targett and replace him is yet to be justified by what’s unfolded on the pitch in both the West Midlands and the North-East.
In other Aston Villa news, Gerrard has shared his backing for Philippe Coutinho.