Lovre Kalinic’s transfer to Aston Villa has been one that simply hasn’t worked out.
When Lovre Kalinic first arrived at Aston Villa last January, it didn’t take him long to make the number one jersey his own – injury to the then number one, Orjan Nyland certainly helped his cause.
But it seems as though 12 months since his £7 million move to Aston Villa [Telegrapgh], when Dean Smith described him as an ‘outstanding’ keeper, it seems as though his time at the club could now be coming to an end.
Genk Sporting Director, Dimitri De Conde, has confirmed that they are interested in a goalkeeper and Villa’s Croatian shot-stopper is ‘a name that we have discussed’, as quoted by HLN Sport.
There’s no doubt that Kalinic needs to leave Villa because his time at the club has been an odd one.
He arrived as a big-money signing when Villa were in the Championship, and given the season-ending injury to Nyland as soon as he stepped through the doors of Bodymoor Heath, he quickly became number one.
Dean Smith, at the time, recalled Jed Steer from his loan spell at Charlton, and then in February after Kalinic was concussed during Villa’s home defeat to West Brom, Steer took the gloves and never looked back.
That’s when the Croatian completely lost his place in the side. And if you add all the current keepers Villa now have at their disposal, including the injured ones to a list, then Kalinic would be seriously low in that pecking order.
Summer signing Tom Heaton, current back-up, Nyland, play-off hero, Steer and recent January recruit, Pepe Reina, are all ahead of him.
It’s fair to say that the signs are suggesting that the best possible option for Kalinic is out of the Villa Park exit door.
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