Ritchie de Laet was farmed out by Championship outfit Aston Villa in the summer, joining A-League outfit Melbourne City on loan.
The Dean Smith revolution is yet to take shape at Aston Villa. The former Brentford boss took over from the sacked Steve Bruce in mid-October but, so far, the results have been disappointing with successive defeats to Norwich City and Queens Park Rangers.
So the January transfer window cannot come soon enough with Smith surely looking to put his own stamp on a mismatch squad.
According to the Birmingham Mail, the 47-year-old could look to recall centre-half Tommy Elphick and left-back Mitch Clark from loan spells at Hull City and Port Vale.
Villa are lacking depth in defence so the decision to let go of Elphick and Clark, who has been a revelation at League Two, always seemed a little odd.
But what of Ritchie de Laet? The experienced Belgian was farmed out to A-League outfit Melbourne City and enjoyed a dream start to life in Australia, scoring the winner on his debut against local rivals Melbourne Victory.
According to the Birmingham Mail, however, De Laet is unlikely to be handed a second chance unlike Elphick and Clark. It is stated that he’s set to see out the entire season Down Under.
When you consider that Villa have a number of players capable of playing at right-back, such as Alan Hutton, Ahmed Elmohamady, James Bree and Axel Tuanzebe, bringing De Laet back doesn’t really make much sense.
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