Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Danny Batth has been linked with Championship club Aston Villa numerous times over the summer but no deal has materialized so far. And club owner Tony Xia has recently cleared the air by dismissing the club’s efforts in landing the centre half. However, despite the 26-year-old falling down the pecking order last season, their skipper remains one of the best players in that position in the league and Villa could regret passing on this opportunity.
Batth’s future with the Wolves remains a huge uncertainty with the enormous changes that Molineux is going through at the moment. Following their underwhelming display last season, the club has brought in a new manager, new staffs and of course new players to strengthen the back line.
Nuno Espirito Santo has been on an aggressive recruitment process and has brought in five new senior defenders in the process, including three centre-backs Roderick Miranda from Rio Ave FC, Ryan Bennett from Norwich City and Willy Boly on loan from Portuguese giants FC Porto. Dominic Iorfa has already been loaned off with only Batth, Kortney Hause, and Matt Doherty waiting on their future.
While having six central defenders shouldn’t make them feel overloaded being a Championship side, given the gruelling nature of their fixture schedule that gets further burdened by the EFL Cup and FA Cup fixtures, the demand for regular first team action will.
An academy product of Wolves, the player has been one of their most popular faces for the past five years and he has been one of their best defenders over the seasons. Wolves were relegated from top English football in 2012 when Batth broke into the first team. He has played for them 177 times since then and scored eleven goals in the process.
It was only last season that he has seen a slump in his displays and could turn up only 26 times. However, it doesn’t indicate his brilliant defending abilities in the whole division. He still remains at his peak at 26 years, and clubs like Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday have been his long-term admirers.
If Batth manages to leave this summer, which is a probability at the moment, he isn’t definitely having a shortage of suitors in the market. And the problem with Villa is very similar to that of Wolves. Following the sale of Nathan Baker, manager Steve Bruce now has top class talents at his back like John Terry, Chris Samba and James Chester, apart from Micah Richards and Tommy Elphick.
Hence, even if Villa do make a move for the Wolves man, his chances of regular football would be as uncertain as it is now at Molineux.
