Aston Villa’s dire financial situation means the Championship giants may be forced to look to little-known free agents.
It is now looking more likely than ever that Alan Hutton has played his last game for Aston Villa.
The experienced defender is out of contract this summer but manager Steve Bruce had insisted that he was keen to keep Hutton around, so long as Villa were promoted to the Premier League and could afford to fund a new contract.
But Villa fans will not need reminding that they lost at Wembley to a single Tom Cairney goal. And, according to the Mirror, Villa’s parachute payments will drop to £15 million and a number of key players will follow captain John Terry out the door with owner Tony Xia promising ‘severe’ cutbacks.
It is understood that talks over a new deal for Hutton have been postponed. And his hefty weekly wages could be too expensive for a side in Villa’s financial predicament. Which perhaps explains why Villa are interested in Tobias Pachonik, according to Turkish Football.
The German right-back is out of contract at Carpi and will be a free agent this summer, and suggestions that he is on Villa’s radar is perhaps a reflection of the new ‘austerity’ regime.
Pachonik, a 23-year-old former Schalke defender who represented Germany at U20 level, is likely to have been identified as a cheap replacement for Hutton. James Bree and Ahmed Elmohamady are already at Villa Park, so it is not as if the club need to add more depth in that position.
And, with Financial Fair Play sanctions looming, Villa should perhaps get used to being linked with little-known free agents. It is going to be a tough few months.
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