Injury-plagued Barcelona defender, Thomas Vermaelen, is linked to a quartet of English clubs. Aston Villa is one such club said to have interest in the Belgium international center back.
Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa all are showing interest in the consistently injury-plagued Thomas Vermaelen.
Vermaelen, 31, spent last season with Roma, making just 12 total appearances. Since his switch from Arsenal to Barcelona in the summer of 2014, the Belgium international defender has played in just 33 club matches in total.
Villa’s interest in a left-footed center back is no surprise. After all, they sold their only one to a division rivalry a few weeks ago. However, Villa being linked to Vermaelen at all is quite baffling. Not only has he not been fit for more than a month at a time, but he has been poor with Barcelona over these past three seasons.
Vermaelen is said to be itching for a move back to England. The player’s Arsenal days were the best of his career where he became a goal-scoring threat on set pieces. In two such Premier League seasons, Vermaelen seven and six goals in respective campaigns.
For a few years in London, TV was one of better central defenders, and occasional left back, in the world.
Despite his injury woes and advancing age, Vermaelen still managed to scratch out six appearances for the Red Devils of Belgium in 2016. A move for regular football is absolutely needed is he is to make the nation’s 2018 FIFA World Cup roster. With a gluttony of elite defenders (Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, Vincent Kompany, Jordan Lukaku, Laurent Ciman), Vermaelen needs to play at least semi-regularly.
It is worth noting Belgium manager Robert Martinez trusts Vermaelen greatly.
Villa Verdict:
It is not happening. Vermaelen just does not make sense on so many levels. The Birmingham Mail admits in the link above that a move is said to be unlikely.