Aston Villa journalist James Rushton has been sharing his praise for former Villa defender James Chester.
This comes after Rushton recently made an appearance on the Birmingham Mail’s Claret & Blue Podcast where he spoke about a number of topics concerning the Villa Park outfit.
On the subject of Chester and his recent departure from the club to Championship side Stoke City, this is what Rushton had to say on the Welshman.
He said: “I know for a fact he didn’t do as well as he did at Villa, because it’s Stoke and they performed badly last season and he was a part of that, so that’s just how things work.
“James Chester, I hold him in the highest regard of Villa defenders that I’ve ever seen play for the club, you know what I mean? Like in terms of defensive footballers, he’s one of my favourites like, personally, I’m not going to bring out stats and compare him to [Paul] McGrath or whatever. In terms of the players I’ve seen at Villa, I hold him in the highest regard.”
Chester signed to Villa back in the 2016 summer transfer window from West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £8.37 million.
During his time at Villa, the defender racked up a total of 126 appearances for the club in which he managed to score 11 goals along the way.
Unfortunately for Chester, he spent a total of 103 days out of action for Villa from February 2019 to May 2019 because of a knee problem (per Transfermarkt).
In the previous January transfer window, Chester joined Stoke on a temporary loan deal until the end of the 2019/20 season.
Last month, the 31-year-old returned to Stoke, this time on a permanent basis on a free transfer from Villa.
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It’s great to hear just how highly Rushton rates Chester for what he gave the club during his time at Villa Park. Hopefully, Chester can keep his fitness levels up and have a successful first full season at Stoke.