Aston Villa look to Jazz up lineup with promising Swansea right-back

Tim Sherwood has let Matthew Lowton go, and it's widely rumoured that he would do the same for Alan Hutton. Meanwhile, he recently just lost out on signing Kieran Trippier from Burnley. All signs point to the Aston Villa wanting (and needing) a new right back, and Swansea may have just the player he's looking for: Wales international Jazz Richards.

Richards spent the latter half of this past season on loan at Fulham where he impressed with his defense and came close to scoring a few times. More recently, though, he was particularly impressive in Wales 1-0 win over Belgium on June 12 in Euro qualifying. With his contract set to expire in 12 months, it seems inevitable that Richards will leave Swansea, and Villa are reportedly competing with Fulham and Norwich to get him.

Reading reports online paint a promising picture of Richards, though it's not clear exactly how he is a significant upgrade over Lowton. One thing may be key here: Lowton was sold for £1 million and Richards is set to cost somewhere in the £500,000 range. That's a tidy profit to be made.

And now, because I am bursting at the brims with these, have some Jazz Richards jokes.

• With Jazz, it's all about the goals he DOESN'T allow!
• If we train him to double as a keeper, we can call him Jazz Hands!
• That Richards kid could sure jazz up the Villa defense!
• Why is the price on Jazz solo?
• I can't wait to see the Micah and Jazz fusion on the right side!
• Don't shoot me if this rumour proves false, I'm just the Jazz messenger!