Villa defender may be Middlesbrough's target man

It's time for another round of "transfer rumours involving an Aston Villa defender"! Today, however, we finally get to shift our focus from Ron Vlaar for a few minutes. Instead, we'll be looking at... Matthew Lowton? Huh, that's a name I didn't expect to be coming up at all. But here's Graeme Bailey of Sky Sports on the situation:

Hearing Middlesbrough are lining up move for Aston VIlla's Matt Lowton. Would be excellent loan signing for Aitor Karanka.

— Graeme Bailey (@GraemeBailey) July 31, 2014

Alright then. In the 2012-13 season, Lowton's first with Aston Villa, he looked to be an incredibly promising young player. Then, during last season, he showed up late to training one day and pretty much disappeared from Paul Lambert's squad. It was really strange, given that Lowton certainly has the potential to play right back as well (or better) than does Leandro Bacuna.

And it's that seemingly inexplicable spat that has me thinking there might be some truth to this rumour. If Bailey is to be believed, it would be a loan move to Middlesbrough for Lowton. That could push the issue to next season and give Lambert one less selection headache this year.

This would also be great news for Alan Hutton. He's just been welcomed back to the team, but it was widely assumed that he would be competing with both Lowton and Bacuna for playing time. If Lowton is out of the equation, I think we can expect to see much more of the Scotsman.

But, let's wait on worrying about that to see if this move even pans out. I think there's more chance of it than your average rumour, but it's still in the nascent stage. This may be the last we ever hear of it.