Plenty of Football League clubs wanted to take Aston Villa’s Keinan Davis on loan – but the Championship giants would not even consider it.
While Andre Green may have Premier League scouts flooding to Villa Park, as reported by The Mirror, Aston Villa fans are just as excited about another 19-year-old forward.
While Green has been honing his trade in the club’s academy since primary school, Keinan Davis (above, left) took a very different route to the Championship giants. Released by Stevenage in 2015, Davis dropped down to non-league with Biggleswade Town before being handed an opportunity in claret and blue. And it’s fair to say he has taken it with both hands so far.
The powerful teenager may not have scored a senior goal yet in Villa colours but his superb performance in last month’s 4-2 thrashing of Norwich City, in which he grabbed an assist and terrorised the visitor’s defence with his combination of aggression and skill, felt like a watershed moment.
Suddenly, with Jonathan Kodjia and Scott Hogan suffering from injuries and Ross McCormack out of favour, the 19-year-old Davis finds himself as one of Steve Bruce’s most important attacking players.
And Villa’s refusal to entertain loan offers from club’s lower down the Football League, as reported by the Birmingham Mail, is already justified.
The report adds that Villa have poured blood, sweat and tears into helping Davis fulfil his potential, their sports scientists handing him a tailored eating regime, academy staff devising a personal workout plan. And, in reward for his remarkable progress, Davis soared past the Under-18 and Under-21 groups to become a fully-fledged member of Villa’s first-team.
And, with Villa refusing to let him hone his trade elsewhere on a short-term basis, this suggests he won’t be short of game time under Bruce this season.
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