Speaking on the Claret and Blue Podcast, Neil Cutler has been discussing Aston Villa’s attempts at signing Jack Butland during his time at the club.
As the Villans’ former goalkeeping coach, Cutler had plenty of sway when it came to goalkeeper recruitment, and he says that he had conversations with Butland about coming to Villa Park.
In the end, Cutler says that it was tough to persuade the Midlands club to cough up the cash to sign Butland due to the fact he was struggling at Stoke City at the time.
Villa spoke to Butland
Cutler spoke about Villa’s pursuit of the England international.
“Yeah, we spoke to Jack (Butland). Jack was a difficult one at the time because he was struggling at the time for Stoke. When I look at goalies and say ‘I can make him better, I can make him top end.’ Even if they’re struggling at another club. He’s quick, he’s agile, he has a good shape, he’s played for England. I can get him back to where he should be. It was difficult selling that to a football club who had to shell out £25m or £30m,” Cutler said.
The right decision
While signing Jack Butland would have been very exciting at one point, it’s fair to say that Villa made the right decision here.
Indeed, Butland’s decline was only just starting when he was being targeted by Villa. Since this point he’s gotten worse and worse to the point where he hasn’t played regular Premier League football since 2018.
Butland looked like he would be England’s future number one when he was younger, but unfortunately, he hasn’t delivered on that potential.
Luckily, Villa opted to instead go and get Emi Martinez – Argentina’s current first-choice goalkeeper, and they haven’t looked back since.
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