Shortly after Steven Gerrard replaced Dean Smith at Aston Villa, the 41-year-old decided to cut short Axel Tuanzebe’s loan move at Villa Park.
The 24-year-old was scheduled to spend the entire season on loan with Aston Villa from Manchester United.
After Gerrard let him go, Tuanzebe joined Napoli on loan until the end of the campaign, where things haven’t gone smoothly.
What’s the story?
Well, the Englishman has only played ten minutes of action in Serie A, as Luciano Spalletti is yet to take a shine to him.
Tuanzebe has struggled with a back injury of late, but even when he was fit, the centre-back was left on the bench during wins over Bologna and Salernitana.
Sadly, the Bunia-born defender was also left out of the Europa League squad by Spalletti, who said it was “a shame” to do so.
As quoted by Tutto Napoli, the Italian said: “It’s still a shame for Axel, we’re getting to know each other, now he has to take care of his back but he immediately joined the group, he already knows how to speak a little Italian, in training he is very strong and also helps us with contrasts, we thank him.”
Clearly, things haven’t gone too well for Tuanzebe in Naples, although he still has time to turn his situation around.
Aston Villa were right to offload Axel Tuanzebe
In our view, Gerrard made the right decision to offload Tuanzebe.
The Manchester United Academy graduate struggled when starting for the Villans this season, and he showed no signs of earning a permanent switch to the Midlands.
Having said that, Aston Villa definitely need to sign another centre-back to replace him, as Gerrard is light on options in that department.
It could even be argued that Tyrone Mings needs to be replaced – the England international has made a series of mistakes so far this season.
Whatever happens, it would be nice to see Tuanzebe turn his situation at Napoli around before the end of the season.
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