View: Steven Gerrard must give Cameron Archer his long-awaited Aston Villa chance
In Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings, Aston Villa have two of English football’s very best strikers but a third top talent is making a name for himself.
Cameron Archer spent the second half of the 2021-22 campaign on loan at Preston North End in the Championship and scored seven times for Ryan Lowe’s side in 20 appearances.
This came after he bagged four goals in two Carabao Cup games for the Villans at the start of the season including a hat-trick away at League Two outfit Barrow.
More recently, though, the 20-year-old has been continuing his fine form on the international stage as he scored in England Under-21s 3-0 win at home to Albania at Chesterfield Technique Stadium [Aston Villa club website].
The victory saw Lee Carsley’s side secure their spot at the European Championships in the summer of 2023 where he will hope to be a key member of a very successful tournament.
By then, however, he will also be hoping to have broken into Steven Gerrard’s Villa side in some capacity, even if it is mostly as a substitute, to begin with.
A goal-scoring season like he’s just had in the Championship is usually enough to see young players such as himself get that Premier League raise and despite Watkins and Ings standing before him, he can still have a role to play.
The latter, in particular, has had his injury problems over the past 12 months or so and Watkins is a player who can always do a job on the wing too if room has to be made for other players.
Gerrard might have big plans for his summer overhaul but he would be a fool to leave Archer’s name off his list having done everything right to this point in his short football career so far.
In other Aston Villa news, another Championship outfit’s CEO is very disappointed with a recent development at Villa Park that saw their key man leave to work under Gerrard.