Lovre Kalinic faces a difficult few months at Aston Villa.
Aston Villa were busy over the summer transfer window, bringing in 12 players to boost Dean Smith’s squad upon promotion back to the Premier League.
Villa also had to let a host of players go though, as Albert Adomah, Ritchie de Laet, Tommy Elphick, Glenn Whelan, Alan Hutton, Mile Jedinak, Ross McCormack, Micah Richards and Birkir Bjarnason are among 20 players to have left permanently.
Another seven have gone out on loan, capping off a remarkable overhaul, but one player missed out on a move away from Villa Park on Monday.
Sky Sports reported on European deadline day that Villa goalkeeper Lovre Kalinic – signed for a hefty £7million fee in January – was wanted by three clubs from France and Germany.
However, Kalinic failed to land a move away from Villa Park, and now faces a difficult time, with a potentially disastrous season on the bench now facing him ahead of EURO 2020.
When Danijel Subasic retired from international duty after the 2018 World Cup final, Kalinic had the chance to seize Croatia’s number one jersey, but has already been dropped in favour of Dominik Livakovic.
Kalinic is in the squad to face Slovakia and Azerbaijan over the next week, but the shirt now belongs to Livakovic, and he even has Luton Town’s Simon Sluga breathing down his neck for the second-choice spot.
Kalinic needed first-team football to get that spot back, but whilst Livakovic is featuring for Dinamo Zagreb, Kalinic is stuck as Villa’s third-choice goalkeeper for months to come, behind Tom Heaton and Jed Steer.
Kalinic may have felt that a move to England would help cement him as Subasic’s successor, but his move really hasn’t panned out – and having failed to earn a move elsewhere for playing time, it may now be a difficult time for the 29-year-old.
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