Cameron Archer expected to be on Aston Villa tour of Australia despite transfer race – report
Aston Villa striker Cameron Archer is expected to join up with Steven Gerrard’s senior squad for their pre-season tour of Australia, according to Tom Collomosse.
The 20-year-old spent the second half of the 2021-22 campaign on loan at Championship side Preston where he scored seven goals in 20 appearances.
That stellar run of form has seen the likes of Rangers, Middlesbrough and Watford take a keen interest in signing him either on loan or permanently talkSPORT correspondent Alex Crook].
But Collomosse, a reporter for the Daily Mail, reported via his personal Twitter account that Archer is expected to hop on the plane to the land down under with Gerrard and the rest of the senior squad.
“Lots of loan interest (also Watford/Sunderland) but as it stands would expect him to go on tour to Australia,” he said. “One thing that could change that is a very big offer to sign him permanently – but who would have the cash?”
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If Gerrard does not make him a part of his first-team squad for the 2022-23 season then he may as well forget his academy altogether.
For his first campaign in the Football League, Archer was sensational for the most part and even bagged a hat-trick for the Villans away at Barrow in the Carabao Cup under the previous manager Dean Smith.
He has all the ability to score goals at the top level and has proven that with four in four for the England Under-21s side, led by Lee Carsley.
He needs to now be given the chance to prove himself in the Premier League at Villa Park and he can’t do that if he’s shipped off to Scotland or back to the second tier for another season.
This is almost a free hit season for Gerrard with no real pressure to deliver European football for the club right now so he can afford to try things out and that has to include Archer.
In other Aston Villa news, despite Archer’s progress, the Villans have no intentions of selling one of the players currently in his way.