Young German winger Anton Donkor is interesting Aston Villa executives again. The 19-year old instead made a loan move to Everton in January, where a serious ankle injury kept Donkor out of the first team. Now, the player is back with his home club of Wolfsburg.
Wolfsburg are in a world of trouble currently. After finishing 16th in the Bundesliga, the storied German club face home and away fixtures against 2. Bundesliga 3rd-place club Braunschweig.
Should Braunschweig come out victorious, Wolfsburg will be playing in the German second division. Quite incredible given the quality in Wolfsburg’s squad: Ricardo Rodriguez, Mario Gomez, Diego Benaglio, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Luiz Gustavo and company.
Anton Donkor isn’t there yet. In fact, Donkor has not made a first team appearance with Wolfsburg at all. Despite this fact, the German winger is highly sought after in England and domestically. Donkor is a regular with the Germany U-20 squad.
Everton pounced on the left-footed forward for an initial six-month loan move in January. The move came with a £1.5 million option to buy; Everton had every intention of exercising the option until an ankle injury limited Donkor to three appearances with the reserve team.
Now, Donkor is potentially back on the market after recovery. His contract with Wolfsburg runs until 2020. One hiccup in a transfer? Wolfsburg’s potential relegation. If Die Wölfe suffer relegation they will surely look to cut expensive players from the squad and play talented youngsters.
Anton Donkor is equally adept at playing on either flank as an outside midfielder or winger. He’s a quick, witty forward who doesn’t overly excel at any facet in the attack, but doesn’t suffer from many weaknesses, either.
He’s exactly six feet tall which is a good height to combat the rigors of the English second division.
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I’m not sure a loan move makes sense for Donkor right now from Aston Villa’s perspective. While options on the wing are not great, Donkor is one year older than André Green who plays the same position. Moreover, Albert Adomah, Birkir Bjarnason, and Jack Grealish occupy places on the flank as well.
A £1.5 million move with an eye for the future does make sense, however, given Donkor’s football reputation. That price is easily within Villa’s budget this summer, granted other moves occur.
If Villa are looking for loan moves to immediately improve the club, they should looks domestically for proven Premier League/Championship talent. Players in the ilk of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham, and James Wilson.