Journalist Ben Wild thinks that Jermain Defoe could be set to join Aston Villa as a member of the coaching staff at the end of the season.
The former Premier League forward, who made just shy of 500 appearances in the competition and scored 163 goals, is currently working as a player-coach at Scottish Premiership side Rangers, and is under contract there until the end of the season.
However what will happen at the end of the season when his contract expires and has had a few months to work with the newly appointed Giovanni van Bronckhorst is a different matter.
Speaking on a video for the Football Insider Facebook page (18:18), Wild seemed to think that a move to Villa Park could be the way for Defoe to go, and explained why that might be excellent news for some of the players that would potentially be working under him if he did make the move:
“I’ve got a sneaking suspicion he’s going to go to Aston Villa at the end of the season. I don’t know why it’s been in my head since I saw that news because obviously, he wasn’t on the coaching staff at Rangers as a like a favour to a mate, he clearly knows what he’s doing and is trying to learn.
“So I wonder if Steven Gerrard will bring him down to Villa because he’s a name isn’t he? He’s a Premier League icon, he’ll instantly get that respect. If you’re a young striker at Aston Villa, or even Ollie Watkins, who is a fantastic striker. But if you’re learning how to finish from Danny Ings and Jermain Defoe every day, you’re going to get better. So I do wonder if that’ll happen.”
TIF Thoughts on Ben Wild’s comments about Jermain Defoe and Aston Villa
Will Aston Villa spend big in January?
Yes
No
Wild is right here when it comes to Defoe’s pedigree and what he can teach others, because when it comes to scoring in the Premier League, there are very few who have done it better, as he sits 9th in the league’s all-time top scorers charts.
And as Wild hints at, if he can instil some of that knowledge onto the next generation of players such as Watkins, as well as any youngsters that are coming through the setup at Villa Park, then there’s every chance that their goal-scoring ability could increase and Villa could end up being real beneficiaries of it if his touch can rub off on them.
Whether or not he does decide to make the move will be interesting, but it is certainly something to watch out for as the season moves on and Defoe begins to take the step away from a player and into a coach on a more permanent basis.
In other news: ‘He’ll definitely have to’ – Journalist drops transfer claim on Gerrard at Villa