Former outcasts Darren Bent, Charles N’Zogbia and Alan Hutton all look to be back in the fold at Aston Villa after Paul Lambert’s change of heart.
Aston Villa’s squad numbers for the coming season have been revealed and, while one wouldn’t otherwise read too much into the list, it does look like good news for three names at least.
Darren Bent, Alan Hutton and Charles N’Zogbia all looked to be heading for the exit door at Villa this summer but, after being handed a second chance to impress in pre-season, all have been given respectable numbers for the coming campaign.
Having once made up the core of the infamous ‘bomb squad’ – the name given to the overpaid and underperforming members of the Villa squad deemed surplus to requirements under Paul Lambert, it’s somewhat of a remarkable turnaround.
Dropped from the side upon Lambert’s appointment in 2012, Bent was handed the number 39 shirt for the following campaign, before joining Fulham on a season-long loan, but his recent return to the setup has seen him bestowed with the more reasonable number 19.
N’Zogbia, meanwhile, wasn’t even given a squad number last season after damaging his Achilles tendon during the summer break, with various fitness setbacks seeing him fail to make a single appearance in 2013-14.
His form over the past few weeks, however, means he claims the number 28 shirt, which, although not the heralded number 10 he owned in 2012-13, should be seen as somewhat of a more positive sign going forward.
The same was also true for Alan Hutton, who hasn’t worn a Villa kit in a first-team game since Lambert’s arrival, being sent out on loan spells to Nottingham Forest, Real Mallorca and Bolton Wanderers, in an attempt to lessen the blow of his £30,000-per-week wages.
However, the Scottish international has so far proved one of the revelations of the club’s pre-season and, after taking on the number 21, could be in line to start at right-back for the club’s Premier League opener against Stoke.
The other interesting point to note is that the number nine shirt has been left open for the moment, but it would be tenuous at best to suggest that means Villa are still in the market for another goalscorer.
Whether Bent, N’Zogbia and Hutton are just back in the fold through sheer desperation is open to debate, considering the current financial situation at the club, but it does seem that all three are set to for surprise returns in 2014-15.
1 Brad Guzan
2 Nathan Baker
3 Joe Bennett
4 Ron Vlaar
5 Jores Okore
6 Ciaran Clark
7 Leandro Bacuna
8 Karim El Ahmadi
10 Andreas Weimann
11 Gabby Agbonlahor
12 Joe Cole
13 Jed Steer
14 Philippe Senderos
15 Ashley Westwood
16 Fabian Delph
17 Chris Herd
18 Kieran Richardson
19 Darren Bent
20 Christian Benteke
21 Alan Hutton
22 Gary Gardner
24 Aleksandar Tonev
27 Libor Kozak
28 Charles N’Zogbia
31 Shay Given
32 Janoi Donacien
34 Matt Lowton
35 Enda Stevens
36 Daniel Johnson
37 Callum Robinson
38 Graham Burke
40 Jack Grealish
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