Aston Villa turn attention to Manchester City’s Joe Hart

If the odds are to be trusted, it seems like Joe Hart is on his way to Villa Park from Manchester City.

However, the Villans won’t be out of pocket on the move, as it seems a loan deal with an obligation to buy could be agreed to help Villa’s current financial situation.

There is no doubt at all that Joe Hart would be a fit at Aston Villa, who have struggled to find a replacement for Brad Guzan (who dropped off the face of the earth after Lambert’s sacking) and have lacked a quality keeper since Brad Friedel’s departure. Villa seem set to miss out on Sam Johnstone as well, who is attracting some serious interest.

As for the odds? A number of days ago, the Manchester City and England Goalkeeper was priced at 8/1 to move to Aston Villa. Those odds have been slashed, to 4/1 and then 5/2.

Aston Villa have an interesting history with the odds. Roberto Di Matteo was a non-factor in the Villa job hunt until his odds were split from 32/1 down to becoming the favourite for the role - despite the lack of news regarding him. The same applies for John Terry - who would never have moved to Aston Villa a month ago, yet is training with the Villans right now after signing a deal.

So, when it comes to Aston Villa and the odds - there is history, and it falls to the side of Villa, and when odds do drop, it would certainly hint at a move happening.

Joe Hart was tipped for a move to Everton - who scuppered that with the Jordan Pickford deal. It seems like the shot-stopper isn’t exactly in demand.

One has to think about the coming World Cup as well. 2018 will likely see England head to Russia to embark on their World Cup campaign. Joe Hart is Gareth Southgate’s first choice - but Fraser Forster, Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford and Tom Heaton will be playing at a higher level than Hart. Despite Southgate’s soft spot for the Villa, Hart’s move might be suicide if he wants that 1st team shirt in Russia. Realistically, Joe Hart should avoid Villa at all costs - but you must take into account that Hart won’t play at City, and a spell in a quality league as ‘mixed’ as his time at Torino might do more damage than dropping down a league.

Talking of Torino - Hart was hardly a success, but he was serviceable. He made a large number of errors, and his defense had to bail him out on more than enough occasions, but Hart’s time in Italy might be an outlier, and there are plenty of factors that could have affected his play.

It is worth keeping in mind that we are very much in ‘rumor’ territory here - but Villa have previous with odds - especially Skybet - so it could very well be a safe punt to say that Joe Hart will be a Villa player in 2017.