Journalist Ryan Taylor has claimed that Steven Gerrard is interested in bringing Duje Caleta-Car to Aston Villa in the summer.
There have been recent reports that Villa are interested in bringing Caleta-Car to the Midlands in the summer, after it was recently announced that teammate Boubacar Kamara will be signing for the club once his current deal with Marseille runs out.
Caleta-Car, who is valued at £14.4 million (as per Transfermarkt), has been a mainstay in the Marseille side this season, making 38 appearances across all competitions, and with Gerrard stating that he wants a dominant defender in the summer, the Croatian could be the perfect fit.
When asked if Villa are interested in James Tarkowski, Taylor confirmed this to GiveMeSport – but also recognised that Gerrard is interested in Caleta-Car.
“Yeah, definitely. I think Marseille’s Duje Caleta-Car as well. He was one of the players Gerrard was watching when he was pictured at the Velodrome recently; went to watch Marseille versus Nantes. I think Villa are quite clear in what they’re trying to do,” Taylor said.
Do you think Caleta-Car will sign for Villa?Yes
No
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TIF Thoughts on Taylor’s comments…
Caleta-Car has had a mixed bag in terms of stats for Marseille this season in Ligue 1. He has the second-highest number of clearances on average per game (2.1), the 10th-highest average player rating (6.92) and the second-highest amount of accurate passes on average per game (64), as per SofaScore.
Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren even tipped the defender to ‘explode’.
With Gerrard making it clear that he wants to steady the defence ahead of next season, bringing in someone with solid defensive stats such as Caleta-Car could be a good option, especially given he’d have a connection with new signing Kamara.
Gerrard has already shown his ruthlessness since being introduced as Villa manager after he shipped off Matt Targett to Newcastle United, which allowed him to bring in Lucas Digne, so we may see a similar story with Kortney Hause in the summer if Caleta-Car was to sign.