De Laet joined Villa on a three-year deal from Leicester City on Tuesday.
Aston Villa completed their seventh signing of the summer on Tuesday with the addition of Leicester City defender Ritchie de Laet.
The 27-year-old has signed a three-year deal at Villa Park and will be expected by most Villa supporters to become the club’s first-choice right-back in the Championship ahead of Alan Hutton.
Whether or not De Laet proves to be a success at Villa, fans will be pleased to see owner Tony Xia and manager Roberto di Matteo move to address the position of right-back, which had been one of the biggest remaining issues in the starting XI – the other, as labelled by Xia himself, being the need to add a pacey, high-quality attacker.
De Laet will certainly bring pedigree to the Villa side. The Belgian played 12 times in Leicester’s title-winning season in the Premier League last term, scoring once – incidentally against Villa, the first Foxes goal as the hosts came from 2-0 down with 20 minutes remaining to win 3-2 at the King Power Stadium in a defining result of both clubs’ seasons.
Not only that, but during a loan spell in the latter months of the campaign he also featured regularly for Middlesbrough as they won promotion from the Championship.
De Laet has been acknowledged as a great dressing-room character by several of his former teammates and managers, and Villa duo Rudy Gestede and Gary Gardner were quick to welcome him to the club.
De Laet replied to Gestede’s message as he looked ahead to lining up alongside his teammates for the first time.
De Laet is yet to play a competitive minute of action this season, and may take a bit of time to get up to speed in terms of his match fitness.
However, Villa fans will be hoping that, with almost a full week of training ahead of him, he will be able to play some part in the clash with Bristol City at Ashton Gate on Saturday.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
