Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl loves Jack Stephens’s leadership qualities, handing the reported Aston Villa target 19 Premier League starts last season.
Matt Targett is not the only Southampton defender who could be on his way to Aston Villa this month.
The former England U21 international took Villa’s summer spend to over £50 million on Monday as he sealed his long-awaited move to the Midlands. And, according to the Mirror (2 July, page 49) Dean Smith’s side could be on their way back to the South Coast to snap up Jack Stephens too.
Like Targett, Stephens rose through the ranks at St Mary’s before establishing himself in the first-team, starting 19 Premier League games last season.
And while he is far from the finished article, lapses in concentration are still far too frequent, there is plenty of raw talent there with Stephen’s reading of the game and leadership skills in particular earning plenty of admiration from Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl.
“What I like about Jack Stephens is that he’s a loud one, he can organise very good and that’s important for the central position of the centre backs because there you have to read the game and push out or take the guys to you so the space in front is not too big,” Hasenhuttl told the Daily Echo back in January.
And there is one man at Aston Villa who would love to see Stephens barking orders at his fellow defenders while repelling all-comers in search of three valuable points; a certain Mr John George Terry.
Aston Villa’s assistant coach was one of the greatest leaders of his generation after all, an old-school, chest-thumping captain who wore the armband with pride for Chelsea and England.
There are few better for Stephens to learn from. A few training sessions alongside Terry and he could be one giant step closer to fulfilling his potential. Who knows, perhaps Stephens could provide that on-pitch bravado and never-say-die attitude Terry embodied during his short spell as an Aston Villa player in 2017/18.
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