Aston Villa rumored to be signing San Jose Earthquakes winger on loan

Just a bit ago, the official Aston Villa Twitter account posted the tweet embedded below. Though nothing official has been announced as of yet, the current rumor is that the player in question is 25-year-old Tottenham Hotspur winger Simon Dawkins.

The club is looking to do a loan deal with a promising player who has recently done well in MLS. #AVFC

— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) January 31, 2013

Dawkins is a product of Tottenham Hotspur's youth academy and signed his first professional deal with the club in 2008. That deal was renewed in 2011, but to this date Dawkins has yet to make an appearance for Spurs. His 2008-09 season was spent on loan at Leyton Orient, but the majority of Dawkins' professional experience has come with the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS. In two seasons, Dawkins has scored 14 goals in 53 games, playing mostly as a winger in a high-flying Earthquakes side that led the league in goals scored by some margin en route to capturing the Supporters Shield, awarded to the team with the highest points total in the regular season.

I'll go more in depth about Dawkins if/when the signing is announced, but my initial reaction is best described as cautiously optimistic. Dawkins is a good, pacey, tricky winger and Villa could certainly use another one of those, but there are quite a few MLS players that I'd rather have. I think Dawkins can help and I'd hope there's an option to buy if he does well, but I'd be stunned if he made anything approaching a major impact on Villa's chances of avoiding the drop. He's a nice player, but if this is the signing that's been rumored since yesterday it's a bit underwhelming.