Goalkeeper Matija Sarkic playing for Aston Villa during a pre-season friendly back in 2017. (Getty Images)
According to Birmingham Mail, Aston Villa have confirmed that Wolves target Matija Sarkic, will leave the club at the end of the season.
Premier League strugglers Aston Villa announced recently that they will not renew the contract of 22-year-old goalkeeper Sarkic, whose current deal at Villa Park is set to expire at the end of this month. Sarkic, who joined Villa back in the summer of 2015 from Belgian side Anderlecht has, however, not played a single game for the senior side to date.
The young shot-stopper from Montenegro has spent the majority of his time at Villa Park with their Under-23 side or on loan at different clubs. Sarkic was recalled from a successful loan spell with Scottish club Livingston in January to play as a back-up to Pepe Reina and Orjan Nyland after Villa’s main keeper Tom Heaton suffered a season-ending injury.
Despite no first-team action coming his way, Sarkic had extended his deal to stay with Villa until the end of the season. But will no longer be a part of the side when the season finishes.
Wolves have been repeatedly linked with a move for Sarkic and had emerged as a shock suitor for Sarkic’s signature earlier this month. Sarkic, on the other hand, was experiencing the best football of his career so far at Scotland with Livingston, keeping six clean sheets from 14 league games before Villa decided to recall him.
He has also had loan spells at Wigan Athletic and Havant and Waterlooville FC prior to this. So he is not short of experience. However, his stint at Livingston has by far been the finest in his career.
Though a move to Molineux would not guarantee him instant first-team action, he could prove to be an excellent future signing for Wolves. Rui Patricio, 32, remains Nuno Espirito Santo’s obvious first-choice man in goal. However, his growing age means Wolves need a young and established keeper in their ranks for the future.
Apart from Patricio, Wolves have another veteran goalkeeper – John Ruddy. The 33-year-old keeper, however, has made just six appearances across all competitions for Wolves this season. This makes it clear that he is not Nuno’s favourite at the moment.
Considering all this, it would be best for Wolves to once again revive their interest in Sarkic.
Roping in a young goalkeeper such as Sarkic will only make Wolves stronger in the upcoming seasons. It will also offer manager Nuno plenty of options in goal. Moreover, he is still young and can develop further under Nuno’s guidance. Hence, by all means, he would be a perfect fit at Wolves.
