Aston Villa defender Kosta Nedeljkovic is still set to leave the club on loan ahead of the January transfer window deadline, as per Unai Emery.
The 19-year-old joined us from Red Star Belgrade last January before spending the second half of the previous campaign back on loan with the Serbian giants.
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He joined up with the Villa squad last summer for pre-season and impressed, but despite Matty Cash’s ongoing injury woes this year, Nedeljkovic has struggled to convince Emery that he’s ready to step in it seems.
Despite opportunities opening up to give the Serbian international playing time, the Villa boss has preferred to shift Ezri Konsa across or play Lamare Bogarde out of his natural position to fill in at right-back, and that has led to the conclusion that Nedeljkovic’s adaptation has perhaps not gone as smoothly as hoped despite impressing when involved.
He’s been limited to just nine appearances so far this season, and so a temporary departure makes sense for all concerned.
Cash suffered another injury setback in midweek and his calf issue is going to sideline him for two to three weeks, as per Emery in his pre-Wolves press conference on Friday afternoon, but despite that blow, the Villa boss has confirmed that the plan remains the same for Nedeljkovic to go out on loan and gain experience.
“He’s a very good guy, humble, honest, hard worker,” he is quoted as saying by the Athletic’s Jacob Tanswell. “But he knows his next step is out of here, to work in another club, in another country and try to recover again him for the next year, to try to use him here with his potential.”
Tanswell adds that when asked if Cash’s injury changes things, Emery said it did not.
As noted above, a loan is the sensible option for all concerned as Nedeljkovic will gain valuable experience through regular playing time, and he’ll hopefully return a more mature, improved and developed all-round player to make a fresh push to become a key member of Emery’s squad.
Naturally though, there is a concern that a loan exit could be the start of going down a path which ultimately ends in a permanent departure, especially after the signing of Andres Garcia this month to strengthen our right-back options.
Time will tell what the long-term plan is as it could be argued that Cash will eventually be the one to move on if our transfer strategy of getting value for players and building a younger squad is anything to go by, but hopefully Nedeljkovic will be part of our future as he has shown real promise up to this point.
