Aston Villa Win Race for Jan Bednarek
It very much seems that Aston Villa have won the race for the services of Southampton centre-back Jan Bednarek, with the Polish international expected to join Villa on a season loan, according to the national press. While we wrote on MOMS over a week ago, he was a favourite to come in, after Villa loaned Kortney Hause out, the media-at-large seemed to think Bednarek was very much West Ham bound. David Moyes apparently decided to switch their focus to a fullback instead and Villa swooped in to finally lock in the deal.
While Villa are still shaken by losing Diego Carlos, their £26m centre-back acquisition, Bednarek at least strengthens the backline options and with his experience of 153 Premier League games, will now be Villa’s most experienced centre-back at Premier League level.
Able to bring a bit blood and thunder to Villa’s line-up, Bednarek has managed to escape any long-term injuries during his Premier League career, after he joined the Saints from Lech Poznań for circa £5m in 2017.
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Villa’s Centre-back Options
The bottom-line is the Pole, who’ll get to play alongside his international teammate Matty Cash, is an upgrade on the outgoing Kortney Hause and with his experience – both internationally and in the Premier League – will provide proper competition in the centre-back position.
Ultimately, it’s a decent move getting him on a loan to specifically cover the sidelined Carlos and it avoids the foolhardy move of dropping another £20m+ transfer fee and high wages on another centre-back (which was always unrealistic).
With both Boubacar Kamara and incoming Leander Dendoncker able to play centre-back too, Villa now have decent squad depth in the position.
In Steve Gerrard’s last press rounds, the Villa boss alluded to having “one or two possibilities” they might pull off before the window closed. If Bednarek and Dendoncker are the two, then, while not spectacular, practicality speaking, they could certainly add to the dynamic of the Villa team, certainly in terms of improving their resilience and set piece strength, at both ends.
UTV
