‘All the best’: Coach bids farewell as 23-year-old nears Aston Villa move

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Nottingham Forest coach Gary Brazil has bid an emotional farewell to Matty Cash on Twitter (see below) as the academy graduate closes in on a move to Premier League outfit Aston Villa.

The East Midland giants squandered any hopes they had of securing a return to the big time after 20 years away earlier this summer, dropping out of the play-offs in the final few minutes of a gruelling Championship season.

And to rub salt into the wounds, the opening weekend of the new Premier League campaign is likely to feature a number of former Forest youngsters.

Talk about “what might have been”.

Patrick Bamford will lead the line for Leeds, while Karl Darlow and Jamaal Lascelles could feature for Newcastle.

And when Aston Villa host Sheffield United on 20 September, their first home game of the campaign, Blades midfielder Ben Osborn may come up against his former Nottingham Forest team-mate Matty Cash.

According to Sky, Villa have agreed an initial £14 million deal for Cash, a winger turned rampaging right-back.

There was a sense of inevitability about the 23-year-old’s departure but, for academy manager Gary Brazil, that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

Aston Villa have beaten the likes of Sheffield United, Southampton, Fulham and AC Milan to Cash’s signature, with the jet-heeled youngster expected to challenge Frederic Guilbert and the experienced Ahmed Elmohamady for a place in Dean Smith’s starting XI.