Aston Villa may be looking to sign Ashley Cole to solve their left-back problem, having confirmed their interest in the former England international over the past few days.
The Villans are currently relying on Kieran Richardson and Leandro Bacuna to fill the role, with first-choice Jordan Amavi out for the season.
Both Joe Bennett and Aly Cissohko are out on-loan to Bournemouth and Porto respectively. While both players are not getting regular football, they are still unavailable until January.
Even if Cole does come in, expect to see Bennett or Cissohko return to the club as Rémi Garde will want to avoid a repeat of the situation Villa are in now.
The big question is, can Cole make a difference in the Villa side, or will he be another Robert Pires or Joe Cole? Both former Premier League greats came into the claret and blue, Pires under Gerrard Houllier and the Englishman under Paul Lambert. The former Arsenal great never really offered much on the pitch and clearly looked past it, while Joe Cole has not been able to make an impact at Villa, due to being perpetually injured. He is now on-loan at Coventry City and it does not look like he will be playing in a Villa shirt again.
This year’s ‘experience’ signing, local boy and fan Joleon Lescott, has not made much of an impact this season. Bought for £1 million in the summer, the 33-year-old has largely been dire for Villa, with his only positive contribution coming against Southampton when he opened the scoring.
The 34-year-old Cole has been a free agent since the start of the season, with Italian side AS Roma terminating his contract. After being released by Chelsea in 2014, he signed a two-year deal with the Giallorossi, only to make 16 appearances (in all competitions).
Up until Roma’s 7-1 thrashing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League Cole was playing regularly, but lost his place to José Holebas, now at Watford and struggling to make to get into the team.
The veteran defender made 215 Premier League appearances for both Arsenal and Chelsea, so he knows the English league well, but he has never been in a relegation battle – he is more used to battling at the top of the table rather than the bottom.
Even if he is still half-decent at playing football, he will need the right attitude to help Villa climb out of the relegation zone. He must still be up for a challenge, you would have thought teams in America, the Middle-East, China and Australia may have approached him.
Cole is obviously going to be way past his prime, but he will still be better than Richardson – the William McGregor statue stood outside the Trinity Road Stand would probably do a better job.
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