Aston Villa expected to sign Rangers teen Rory Wilson in coming weeks
Aston Villa are expected to complete the signing of young striker Rory Wilson in the coming weeks, according to The Athletic.
The news outlet reported on 3 June that Wilson, 17, is set to choose Villa as his next club after it was confirmed in May that he’s going to be leaving Rangers this summer.
As quoted by the Daily Record on 25 May, the teenager said that “it’s time to move on” from Ibrox and strongly hinted that he’ll be joining a club in English football.
Youth recruitment
Villa are not scared of throwing their weight around when it comes to signing young players to add to their youth teams at Villa Park.
While the club is able to produce their own talent through their academy, it’s hard to ignore the increased number of raids on other teams across the country for their top young players.
Tim Iroegbunam, Louie Barry, Finn Azaz, Brad Young and Finley Thorndike all come through the ranks at West Brom before joining Villa – with Barry joining via Barcelona first – while the Villans also have a number of staff members who came to the Second City from the Baggies.
Wilson is very highly-rated at Rangers but does there come a point where Villa need to start focussing more on developing their own talent rather than poaching youngsters from elsewhere?
Of course, a lot of clubs do it but Villa have a very wide recruitment area to add to their youth squad and they also boast the status of being the biggest club in the country between London and Manchester.
In other Aston Villa news, Newcastle still have a deal in play to sign Matt Targett permanently.