Lucas Digne has been speaking to L’Equipe about his start to life at Aston Villa, where he shared an interesting story about Steven Gerrard.
What’s the story?
Well, the France international revealed that Gerrard waited for him until he arrived at Aston Villa around 9pm on the day he signed his contract.
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Digne admits the 41-year-old “didn’t have to” do that, and felt he “could have waited for training” the next day, but it spoke volumes that he did wait.
L’Equipe quote the £25m man as saying: “When I signed, around 9pm, Gerrard was there to give me a hug, to tell me that he was happy that I joined Villa. We talked for two hours. He didn’t have to, he could have waited for training the next day.”
First impressions count, and clearly, Gerrard made an impactful one on Digne.
Since that day, the 28-year-old has impressed for the Villans, where he offers a real outlet down the left flank with his incredible technical skills.
In eight Premier League appearances under Gerrard, Digne has provided one assist, while helping Aston Villa record three wins and two draws.
Everton were wrong to sell Lucas Digne to Aston Villa
In our view, Everton made a terrible decision when selling Digne.
The only reason he departed Goodison Park was due to a fallout with Rafa Benitez, who was sacked just days after the left-back joined Aston Villa.
If the likes of Farhad Moshiri and Bill Kenwright were thinking straight, they would’ve surely put a block on the move if they were unsure about Benitez’s position at the helm, but no.
The Toffees inexplicably sold someone who was arguably their best player, and replaced him with the inexperienced Vitaliy Mykolenko for £17m.
For a number of reasons, Everton made a woeful decision, but their loss has certainly been Aston Villa’s gain.
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