Aston Villa signed the Welsh centre-back two years ago.
Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce spoke to reporters yesterday, ahead of his side’s Championship clash with Reading today, and raved about the quality of James Chester, after the Welshman reached 100 appearances for the club, as quoted by the club’s official website.
The 29-year-old joined the Villans from West Brom in the summer of 2016, for a fee believed to be worth in the region of £9 million, and he has gone on to establish himself as one of his team’s most important players.
Chester is a superb all-round defender, and if Villa are to have any chance whatsoever of earning promotion to the Premier League, he will need to stay fit and be at his very best for the majority of the campaign.
Bruce offered high words of praise for Chester, when speaking to reporters yesterday, suggesting that if every player was like the centre-back, he would be out of a job, as quoted by the club’s official website:
“I’ve gone on record saying if every player was like James Chester then my job would be easy – you wouldn’t need managers. It doesn’t surprise me. He looks after himself and does everything right. He’s a great professional. He plays with knocks, bumps and bruises that others simply can’t. He’s got a resilience about him. It comes from within. I think I’ve managed him now for the best part of seven years. He’s appreciated and reaching that number of games so quickly doesn’t surprise me.”
Villa face Reading at Villa Park today, and Chester will surely make his 101st appearance for the west Midlands club, as they look to make it a return of 11 points from their opening five league games.
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