Aston Villa have officially announced that Kortney Hause has joined Watford on loan for the rest of the current season.
Hause, 27, was limited to just nine appearances across all competitions for Villa last season, as he struggled to push his way up the pecking order and into contention to start under Steven Gerrard.
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After undergoing surgery on a knee injury this past summer, he has yet to feature in the current campaign having missed the pre-season schedule, and with the likes of Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa and Calum Chambers ahead of him, it’s unlikely that his situation at Villa would have changed any time soon.
In turn, Villa have confirmed that Hause has joined Watford on loan for the season, where the centre-half will no doubt hope to secure a more prominent role, play regularly, and rediscover his best form.
Time will tell whether or not that leads to another opportunity at Villa next season or if perhaps it puts him in the shop window and earns him a more permanent solution elsewhere, but for now, his focus will be on helping Watford secure promotion back to the Premier League, while Villa now have work to do in the transfer market ourselves.
With Diego Carlos undergoing surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon earlier this month, Gerrard is now short of depth in the centre-half positions, and so he’ll undoubtedly hope to bring in another option in that department between now and the transfer deadline.
It’s unclear at this stage as to whether that will be a temporary fix in the form of a loan swoop or if we’ll look to invest more significantly in another defender despite Carlos being expected to return in the latter stages of the campaign, but what is certain for now is that we need to act and address that situation.
While it’s the right move to allow Hause to move on given his lack of involvement over the past season or so, it does widen the void left in the centre of the backline, and while Mings, Konsa and Chambers will certainly offer plenty of quality and experience, Villa are at risk of being left short if we were to suffer any further injuries or suspensions to that trio.