Aston Villa toyed with the idea of signing the England international during the summer.
Aston Villa could and probably should be thankful that they didn’t sign Jack Butland this past summer.
The Stoke City goalkeeper has had a dreadful start to the season and it didn’t get much better in Tuesday night’s penalty shootout win over Leeds United.
Yes, Butland scored during the 5-4 penalty shootout win at Elland Road, but his horrendous clearance directly led to Eddie Nketiah getting one of two goals back for the hosts, who came from two behind to draw.
Aston Villa were quoted £20 million to sign the England international in July [The Sun] and there’s just no way that Dean Smith can regret not spending the money.
Prior to his error last night, Butland had been dropped by Stoke boss Nathan Jones following an error-laden start to the campaign – and if he’s struggling for City in the Championship, it’s hardly a foregone conclusion that he would’ve been terrific for Smith’s side in the Premier League.
Many Villa fans were on board with the prospect of bringing him to Bodymoor Heath. After all, he’s only 26 and still has the potential to get a lot better.
But if these last few weeks have proven anything, it’s that Butland remains very raw in several aspects of his game, which might be why a bigger club than Aston Villa haven’t taken him away from the Potteries yet.
Smith could’ve afforded him this summer, having spent over £100 million on transfers, but Tom Heaton for £8 million represents a much safer bet in the short term.
Heaton hasn’t been flawless, having conceded a silly penalty against Bournemouth earlier this month, but it wasn’t an out-and-out gaffe, the like of which Butland has been specialising in lately.
Butland will no doubt get better but, for now, Aston Villa were dead right not to spend so much money on him.
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