Did Aston Villa miss a trick when loaning promising centre-back Easah Suliman to Eredivisie newcomers FC Emmen?
With just two weeks of the transfer window remaining in August, Aston Villa loaned highly-rated defender Easah Suliman out to Eredivisie newcomers FC Emmen.
The Championship side then proceeded to farm Tommy Elphick to Hull City and, by the time the deadline had passed, failed to sign a single defender in their place.
As a result, James Chester is now the only natural centre-back in Steve Bruce’s squad and Villa have been forced to scour the market for veteran free agents such as John Terry, James Collins and Robert Huth.
It is all a bit of a mess and does not exactly reflect well on Villa’s recruitment strategy, not to mention their long or short term planning.
And it is worth asking whether the decision to loan out Suliman now looks like a mistake.
Bruce clearly did not rate the more experienced Elphick, who frequently squandered chances to impress, but the England U20 ace surely deserved a chance to show that he could step up after the departures of Terry and Chris Samba.
The likes of Keinan Davis and Andre Green have showed that the gap from the academy to the first-team can be breached.
And, while Suliman should at least benefit from regular game time in Holland, it would have been interesting to see whether one of Villa’s most promising youngsters could have seized his chance to make a starting place his own.
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