Championship promotion hopefuls Aston Villa reportedly want to sign Joe Worrall from Nottingham Forest, as do Scottish Premiership giants Rangers.
Nottingham Forest haven’t exactly enjoyed a stellar start to the new Championship campaign. They are stuck in 10th place after winning just one of their four league games so far.
But Aitor Karanka’s side are still expected to be among the promotion favourites once they find their feet and their array of gifted summer signings settle in. So loaning a talented if out-of-favour player to a club who could soon emerge as a direct rival seems like a risk not worth taking.
According to the Daily Record, Aston Villa are hoping to sign centre-back Joe Worrall on loan for the season.
Now, Worral has fallen down the pecking order at Forest after the arrivals of Michael Dawson, Michael Hefele, Tobias Figueiredo and Jack Robinson and hasn’t featured in any of their games so far in 2018/19.
But he could be a first-choice pick at Villa, who lost John Terry in the summer and have been forced to persist with the unconvincing Tommy Elphick. Under Steve Bruce, England’s Toulon tournament winning captain could start to fulfil his impressive potential and feature on a regular basis.
So even though Worrall isn’t needed at Forest right now, loaning him to Aston Villa could only serve to strengthen a direct promotion rival. And this could blow up in their face in the business end of the season.
Sending Worrall out of the way to Scotland, where Rangers are also keen, makes far more sense.
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