Aston Villa player signs for West Bromwich Albion

Aston Villa signed young winger Lewis Dobbin from Everton in June for a fee of £9 million. A few weeks later, he has signed for Villa's Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion on a season-long loan.

Dobbin arrived at Villa in exchange (kind of!) for the outgoing Tim Iroegbunam and after featuring in Villa's pre-season tour of USA it has been decided that he will spend a year in the Championship to grow his experience.

It was predicted from the start that a loan move was highly likely for the 21-year-old and Villa will hope that Dobbin can perform at the level that he had shown previously for Everton in the Premier League and FA Cup.

It does mean however that Villa have lost another player for the time being and the necessity to make more signings is becoming more and more apparent. With just a few weeks left in the transfer window Villa will be hoping to sign another centre-back, with Joe Gomez of Liverpool being linked, a right-back and a player who can play in the number 10 role. A deal to sign Joao Felix is looking unlikely despite there being negotiations and huge interest from Unai Emery and other targets such as Max Beier is also likely to head elsewhere.

Villa have work to do in the next few weeks to boost their squad to the next level, with many fans concerned that the starting XI is looking weaker than the one that secured Champions League qualification last season.

UTV