Aston Villa have exercised a recall option on Kaine Kesler-Hayden, who will now return to the club from his loan spell at Plymouth Argyle.
The 21-year-old made 27 appearances for the Championship outfit so far this season, and coupled with his impressive performances at youth level for Villa as well as during previous loan stints at MK Dons and Swindon, he is considered to be one of our top prospects.
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As per Plymouth’s official statement, Kesler-Hayden will now return to Villa after we triggered a recall option in his contract, and so now it will be interesting to see what we decide is the best next step for his development.
There are seemingly three options moving forward, with either Unai Emery adding him to the senior Villa squad as competition and cover at right-back for the rest of this season, the talented youngster is sent back out on loan again perhaps at a higher level or in a better fit for him, or he’s ultimately moved on permanently.
With the Villa boss confirming in his pre-Everton press conference on Friday that Calum Chambers is free to leave the club this month, it could be a move in anticipation of that with Kesler-Hayden able to provide cover at right-back behind the likes of Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa.
Disrupting his loan spell at Plymouth just to move him elsewhere temporarily doesn’t seem to make much sense given he was gaining experience albeit perhaps not performing as well as he is capable of, while a permanent exit could be on the cards given our recent history of selling youth products for important profit.
Emery also discussed our FFP situation on Friday and hinted at the likelihood of exits moving forward to balance our books and make room for new signings, and so after Cameron Archer, Aaron Ramsey and Jaden Philogene moved on last summer, could Kesler-Hayden be next given he should attract decent offers?
Time will tell what’s next, but ultimately Villa have decided that the best decision for now is to end his time at Plymouth, and we’ll see how that impacts our plans in the coming weeks and beyond.
