Aston Villa facilities blow mind of Diego Carlos after ‘very good’ first day
Aston Villa have got their pre-season training regime underway and new signing Diego Carlos is astounded at his surroundings.
The Brazilian defender signed for the Villans from Sevilla this summer for £26million to add some much-needed strength in depth at centre-half for Steven Gerrard.
As the biggest signing of the summer so far for Aston Villa, there is pressure for Carlos to succeed straight away in the Midlands and it looks good as he loves the club’s training facilities.
“The first day was very good. A surprise,” the 29-year-old said, as quoted by the Express and Star. “I was surprised by the training ground, everything was really nice.
“I was also very well received by all the players and the people who work here. I’m really happy and thank you to everyone for being so welcoming.
“Well the facilities, the truth is from when I first walked through the door, I noticed the training ground. They were great, very good pitches, very good facilities. Everything inside was really nice. I’m really happy to be involved with this team.”
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Aston Villa supporters are right to be expecting big things from Carlos this season after he led the Sevilla defence with such gravitas and composure in La Liga.
He is now in the prime years of his career as a defender so Gerrard will be expecting him to similarly lead by example in claret and blue even if the language barrier does become a challenge to begin with.
Luckily for the 29-year-old, he has fellow Brazilians Douglas Luiz and Philippe Coutinho who he can talk to and get some critical translations as he tries to settle in the Premier League.
Being such a big-money signing, you would expect that he would go straight into the Villa starting XI for the opening game of the season barring any injury concerns but the big question mark is over who his partner will be.
Tyrone Mings has been the senior figure for the last couple of seasons but Ezri Konsa has pushed him very hard over the last 12 months but with Boubacar Kamara likely to start in front of them in the number six role, Gerrard should be picking experience over potential, at least to start with.
In other Aston Villa news, the club announced the arrival of a very exciting young striker this week after he scored an incredible amount of goals in Scotland.