Aston Villa defender Calum Chambers is reportedly set to undergo a medical ahead of a potential move to join Cardiff City this summer.
The 29-year-old arrived at Villa in January 2022 and went on to make 36 appearances for the club, as he provided important squad depth during his stint with us.
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However, with his opportunities to play becoming increasingly rare, it has become apparent that he doesn’t have much of a role to play under Unai Emery moving forward, and so a departure would seem like the most sensible outcome for all concerned.
According to Glen Williams of WalesOnline, Chambers is now close to joining Cardiff with his medical booked, and he notes that it will be a permanent transfer.
The Athletic have since reported that talks are ongoing between the two clubs, and although terms aren’t agreed yet, a small fee is expected to be involved, while there is interest from elsewhere too if this move doesn’t materialise.
The versatile ace’s Villa contract has another year to run on it and so it’s certainly a useful development in terms of shifting his wages off the books at the very least, particularly given he’s unlikely to make much of an impact for us on the pitch.
While Chambers was capable of playing either as a centre-half or right-back and even in midfield if necessary, Villa will continue to strengthen Emery’s squad this summer and so the quality level within the group continues to go up.
The former Arsenal man deserves credit for being an important presence for us in his time at the club, but ultimately if we are to continue to compete at the top level, then we must keep improving and upgrading the squad where possible.
We have quality and competition across most of those positions now, and if not yet, it will likely be a priority in the coming weeks to address those issues, with Emery even noting back in January that Chambers had been informed that he was free to leave Villa if a suitable offer arrived.
Given our injury and suspension issues last season, he actually became a relatively key option on the bench as we were struggling for numbers, but now, the time does feel right for both the club and player for him to move on and start a new challenge elsewhere.