Aston Villa: ‘Premier League ready’ right back set to be targeted by Unai Emery
Aston Villa will look to sign a starting right back in the summer despite Kaine Kesler-Hayden getting his first Premier League minutes, according to Ty Bracey.
Given that Ezri Konsa has played the majority of the season at right back, it points towards Matty Cash’s exit over the summer.
Despite some positive performances over the course of the campaign, it is clear Unai Emery doesn’t rate the Polish international highly.
This has sparked many transfer rumours which have suggested the Villans are interested in signing a right back in the upcoming window.
Against Wolves (30 March), Kesler-Hayden came off the bench in his first Villa appearance of the season since being recalled.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, Bracey was happy for the 21-year-old. On that, he said: “Massive for him to get some minutes. Do I think he’ll be starting next season at right back? No, I don’t, I think we’ll look at the market for another right back. I think that’s one position in the market we are going to look at this window. Over the moon for him that he got some minutes, I know he came out and said it’s a dream come true. Fair play to him.”
With that being said, there hasn’t been a shortage of transfer rumours linking players to Villa Park in that position recently.
On that, Bracey added: “I’ve seen us linked to a few. I’ve seen us linked to a Fiorentina right back, I think we’ve been linked with Di Lorenzo from Napoli. I don’t know, you see links from the Serie A, you’ve seen links in Spain and you see links in the Championship it’s one of those things you don’t know but value for money is important but also having someone who’s ready for that step up to the Premier League is equally as important in my opinion.
“They’ll be looking for a starter. They’ll be looking for someone who Emery can get what he wants from them. We’ve got the development player in Kesler-Hayden but yeah, I think we’ll be looking for someone ready to jump straight into the first team.”
Will Aston Villa sign a new right back?
Konsa is one of if not Villa’s best central defenders and him being played out of position every week isn’t an ideal scenario.
Emery has opted for one defensive-minded full back and given Alex Moreno and Lucas Digne are on the left, Cash doesn’t get a look in.
With that being said, this wouldn’t point towards the signing of a player in the profile of Di Lorenzo who is more attacking-minded.
According to Fbref, he registers higher than the 80 percentile for most attacking stats. On the flip side, three of his five defensive stats are under the 30 percentile.
Compared to his peers, he registers quite poorly in the defensive area of the pitch which wouldn’t suit an Emery system necessarily.
With Kosta Nedeljkovic set to enter the first-team fold in the summer, an experienced defensive option would be beneficial.
It is looking likely based on rumours and links that a new right-back will come through the doors at Villa Park, who that will be is yet to be seen.