Aston Villa Women sign Welsh international Natasha Harding from Reading
Aston Villa Women have announced the signing of veteran Natasha Harding from Women’s Super League rivals Reading.
The 33-year-old has played in every WSL match for The Royals across the last two seasons, missing just 222 minutes of football across the entire time.
She left Reading after four-and-a-half years in Berkshire this summer, with Villa announcing her move to The Midlands via their website on Tuesday morning.
Villa confirmed that Harding has signed a one-year deal at the club and seemed to suggest via a teasing Twitter post that she will wear the number 17 shirt.
Harding can operate at winger and full-back, but the BBC reported that she wanted to spend more time further forward, which Villa promised to her.
Easy to recommend
Carla Ward moved quick to secure the signing of the experienced forward and on paper it seems a smart signing.
Villa are a very young squad and you can often tell that they lack experience, so Ward has solved that issue by signing Harding and Danielle Turner.
Harding has had a glittering career in football, which started with Cardiff City back in 2007 when she was just 17 years old.
Spells at Bristol Academy, Manchester City and Liverpool followed before her move to Reading, while she has also enjoyed a long career in the Welsh national team.
She made her Wales debut in 2008 and has since gone on to make 100 appearances for her country, being only the eighth player to do so.
Harding has also captained both Cardiff and Reading, adding leadership that Villa lost when Anita Asante retired at the end of last season.
It is a shrewd signing by Ward as Villa seek to push on in the WSL, though they still have much more business to do before the season starts in September.
In other Aston Villa news, Carney Chukwuemeka is attracting serious interest from Barcelona.