Aston Villa January signing outlines reason behind winter switch

Aston Villa defender Lino Sousa has said he joined the club in January to boost his chances of first-team football down the line.

Unai Emery's side swooped to land the full-back from fellow Premier League side Arsenal this winter before immediately loaning him back out to Plymouth Argyle in the Championship to help him get some experience under his belt.

Sousa, 19, has since made a couple of appearances for Ian Foster's side in the second tier as they look to rise up the table and he is due to return to Villa Park in the summer.

He has opened up about his move and has said, as per a report by BirminghamLive: "I wanted to get out and play first team football, whether that was at Arsenal or elsewhere, and I felt as if Villa provided me the right platform and the right plan to go ahead and do that, so that's why I made that conscious decision to leave."

The Lisbon-born man added: "When I was signing with Aston Villa there was always the idea of me going out on loan. Where to, it wasn't quite concrete.

"When I signed for Villa, I signed papers for Argyle as well. Everything happened so quickly. I came down the same day and then I met the manager (Foster) the next day and was in for training."

Aston Villa will be hoping Sousa can develop into being a key player for them in the future. He is a relatively risk-free addition for the Midlands outfit.

The England youth international played for West Brom up until 2022 before Arsenal lured him down to London.

He went on to play five times for the Gunners but found his pathway into their starting XI blocked by the abundance of options that they have at their disposal in his position these days.