Why Aston Villa must ditch James Collins in favour of Younes Kaboul
According to the Mirror, Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has stated that 35-year-old former West Ham centre-back James Collins might still have a future at the club after physically tearing up his £50,000 contract.
Collins, who has been without a club after being released by West Ham at the end of last season, trained with his former club Aston Villa in December and impressed manager Dean Smith. Subsequently, he was handed a £10,000-a-week contract for five weeks to add cover at the back but the Welshman suffered an injury in training and physically tore up his contract just an hour after signing it.
On the other hand, BBC Sports claims that Watford have cancelled the contract of former French international Younes Kaboul by mutual consent. The 32-year-old hasn’t featured for the Hornets since September 2017 and has been left out of the Premier League squad by manager Javi Gracia.
Kaboul made his move to English football with Tottenham Hotspur from Ligue 1 club Auxerre back in 2007. The Frenchman shifted bases to then Premier League club Portsmouth in August 2008 before returning to Spurs for a second spell from 2010-15 and a season with Sunderland in 2015-16. He joined Watford in 2016 and was a regular for the Hornets in the 2016-17 season where he made 22 appearances but his involvement was limited to only a couple of outings last season.
Standing at 6ft. 4 inches with a towering frame, Kaboul is known for his game-reading ability in the air as well as off the ground. His height provides him with an obvious advantage over most of his offensive counterparts and he has above-average dribbling skills for a centre-back. A no-nonsense defender, Kaboul likes to clear the ball out of the back rather than trying to play out with short passes.
Kaboul, who has 5 caps to his name for France at the international level, is currently one of the high-profile free-agents in the Premier League having played for Spurs, Portsmouth and Sunderland. He was a seasoned campaigner for the Lilywhites and also has European experience under his belt.
On the contrary, Collins, 35, is at the twilight of his career and it is going to be a daunting task for him to regain match-fitness after suffering an injury. Moreover, he has been without a club for more than six months and drafting him straight on to the bench as an understudy to James Chester and Axel Tuanzebe might prove to be a risky proposition for Dean Smith. With all due respect to his abilities and whatever he has achieved in his career, Collins can’t really be a first-choice defender for a promotion-chasing side like Aston Villa at this stage of his career.
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Hence, Smith should turn his attention towards Younes Kaboul as the Frenchman has no fitness concerns and still has a good 2-3 years of football left in his tank.
