Villa Land England U21 Keeper

Villa have completed the season long loan deal for Liverpool and England U21 keeper Scott Carson.

Martin O’Neill told the official site:

‘I’m really delighted. I think he’s got the potential to be an absolutely top-class goalkeeper. He’s had the year’s experience down at Charlton last year, where he did very well, he’s carried that on with the England Under-21s and he’s ready. With those experiences he now obviously wants to play. Liverpool have made it abundantly clear that they do not want to sell him and they’ve mentioned that for quite some considerable time. Their stance has not changes, so a loan is a compromise.’

‘In an ideal world I would have preferred to have had our own players on a permanent basis, but we have him for the year and I’m absolutely delighted. I asked about Scott some weeks ago and Liverpool’s position has never changed. I’m delighted that they’ve allowed him to come and I’m obviously very pleased that he has.’

He also suggests there could still be more signings to come, ‘We’ve got a number of weeks yet to go. By the time that transfer deadline is over we will have played three league games, but we will still have 35 left to play. We’re in a position to do something about the squad size. I’m acutely aware of having let players go over the summer time. We need to build the squad up and I would like to get as much quality into the squad as possible. You can always build up by numbers if that’s what you want to do., but I believe that quality should really come first.’

A report by John Wragg in The Express suggests Villa might well break the British goalkeeping transfer record next summer and try to buy him for around £10million.

Villa skipper Gareth Barry is also happy saying: ‘This is a great signing for Aston Villa. Scott is a proven Premier League player and he came close to keeping Charlton up last season when he turned in some excellent performances. He has also got Champions League experience and these are the type of players you need in your side.’

Carson won’t be able to play v Liverpool tomorrow but will be in contention for our trip to St James park on Saturday 18th August.