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A loan move for 32-year-old Christian Fuchs is not the answer to Aston Villa’s defensive woes, and the club should avoid such a short term approach.
Words by Regan Foy (@FindFoy)
News out of the tabloids today is that Aston Villa are interested in signing 32-year-old Leicester City left-back Christian Fuchs in a half season loan.
The Austrian has fallen out of favour at Leicester City since the rise of England international Ben Chilwell, and the Premier League winner has only managed five appearances for the Foxes this season, with four of those coming in the Carabao cup.
Whilst Neil Taylor has struggled with injury this term, he’s probably enjoying the best form of his Aston Villa career under Dean Smith (bar a shaky performance here and there) – but the club do need to look at reinforcements in Taylor’s position.
Fuchs is an adequate replacement or cover option at left-back, who is incredibly experienced in English football and helped Leicester City to their title-winning season just a few years ago.
However, signing Fuchs on a short term loan signals the short term-ism that has plagued Aston Villa over the past two seasons.
A number of loans in both the clubs play-off final season and the current season have left the club a little in the lurch.
Regardless of the end of last season, the Aston Villa side that finished the season was perhaps the most connected on the pitch in recent memory. And their failure to gain promotion to the Premier League saw the likes of Robert Snodgrass and Sam Johnstone leave the club after becoming popular figures amongst the fans.
This season, Aston Villa are struggling with the short term-ism again, with rumours that Tammy Abraham could be moving to Wolverhampton Wanderers and having his loan at Villa Park cut short – meaning that the claret and blue would be losing theirs, and the leagues top goal scorer.
Fuchs is currently earning around £60,000 a week at Leicester, and the East Midlands based side would expect Aston Villa to cover the entire amount if he were to join according to news outlets.
If it were a move with an option-to-buy at the end of it, then there would be no qualms with such an experienced defender joining Aston Villa’s promotion cause – but at 32-years-old, Christian Fuchs is in the twilight of his career – and likely to look for a move into Major League Soccer during the summer to be with his American wife.
The Austrian seems keen to play regular first-team football again, but if all Aston Villa are doing is keeping him fit and putting him in the shop window only for him to swan off for an American sunset come July, they’re better off avoiding him and buying in or developing a younger prospect.
I do agree about the use of loans … the problem I have with them is those that are young and upcoming such as Tuanzebe, Abraham, Johnstone etc. We’re bringing them on for another club. However a half season loan for Fuchs at his age does make some sense, although I’d rather we weren’t covering his full wages.
Buy young, Loan old.