View: Lack of recall clause in Cameron Archer loan agreement could come back to bite Aston Villa
Aston Villa may have shot themselves in the foot during the January transfer window after not inserting a recall clause in Cameron Archer’s loan agreement with Middlesbrough.
Although Danny Ings was deemed surplus to requirements under Unai Emery and was therefore allowed to leave the club for West Ham last month, the structure of Archer’s move to the Championship outfit remains questionable.
Birmingham Live reporter Ashley Preece revealed on Friday (3 February) that there was no recall clause in the 21-year-old’s loan agreement should injuries occur to Villa’s strike force and that he will remain with Michael Carrick until the season’s close.
This begs the question, have Emery and Aston Villa been a little shortsighted in their culling of the first-team squad in January?
With the Villa academy graduate not available to be called on later this season, Emery has just four proper attacking options to call upon for the rest of this campaign.
Both Bertrand Traore – who was recalled from his loan at Istanbul Basaksehir – and Leon Bailey are mercurial talents and can’t be relied upon for consistent goals, while little can be expected of 19-year-old Jhon Duran in his first few months acclimatising to the Premier League.
The goalscoring burden, therefore, falls upon Ollie Watkins’ shoulders, but after netting just four times from 19 Premier League appearances this season, Emery’s side could well be short of goals in the coming months.
If the worst were to happen and Watkins were to pick up a season-ending injury, Emery could be in a whole heap of trouble. What would add insult to injury is if the Spaniard cast his eyes over Archer and saw the prolific young forward scoring goals for fun at the Riverside Stadium.
The reasoning behind Archer’s loan for clear for all supporters to see – as the England Under-21 international wasn’t getting enough game time at Villa Park – but they could surely have negotiated a clause that saw him return to the West Midlands mid-season.
Emery’s forward line looks paper-thin for the remaining 18 games of the Premier League season, and you can’t help but feel this problem was of Villa’s own making.
In other Aston Villa news, Unai Emery must end Matty Cash’s exile in defence and bring him back into the side for Ashley Young.