The latest transfer news and rumour concerning possible January player movements at Villa Park and more details emerge about the ZED FC annoucement:
KEINAN DAVIS
Embed from Getty ImagesThe 23 year old striker appears increasingly on the periphery at this stage of his Villa career. Davis’ development has been stifled by injuries and arguably a lack of senior game time. Indeed, a loan move to Stoke City last summer (2021) collapsed due to Davis having to spend yet more time on the treatment table.
With academy strikers Cameron Archer and Louie Barry now challenging for first team berths, Davis’ future in all probability lies elsewhere. Few could fault the former Biggleswade Town strikers attributes, with his strength and hold-up play impressive. However, this hasn’t translated into goals, with just a single Premier League goal registered to date and only 7 in total since 2016.
The latest club to show interest are Championship leaders Bournemouth, currently managed by Scott Parker. 9th placed Nottingham Forest were reported as also being interested recently, but it’s reasonable to assume that a number of second tier clubs would consider Davis for the remainder of the campaign.
BREAKING: DAVIS TO UNDERGO FOREST MEDICAL
Read about all of the latest Villa transfer news and rumour, including a link to Bologna’s Aaron Hickey and Napoli’s approach for Axel Tuanzebe.
ZED FC ANNOUNCED
It has been announced that Villa have officially linked up with Egyptian Academy ZED FC.
There’s a family connection to Villa’s current owner Nassef Sawiris, with his nephew Onsi Sawiris ZED FC’s current chairman.
The objective of the link up between Aston Villa and ZED is to develop youth talent for the benefit of the Premier League club. For Villa, the aim is obviously to access an untapped market of emerging talent in an uber competitive global transfer market. ZED’s work appears centred around nurturing youth prospects to better improve the prospects of the Egyptian game and raise its profile more generally.
ZED FC were winners of ‘Best Youth Academy in Africa‘ in 2021, recognising the fact that they currently have four sides appearing in the Egyptian League. They represent the only private outfit to win the award to date, having developed continent leading facilities and practices.
The award ceremony, hosted at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, highlighted ZEDs progress, growing credentials and underlined the ambitions of an outfit founded just 12 years ago. Most noteworthy, it included the organisations work in identifying and developing talent across Egypt as well as forging working relationships with top European sides, with Borussia Dortmund cited as an existing high profile example.
IN QUOTES
We’re following the Egyptian state’s plan to take care of young people and support them to reach their highest potential.
We have reached an initial agreement with Aston Villa, and we will send a number of young players to spend some time there, to learn about the European system.
Onsi Sawiris