Aston Villa fans in the Transfer Tavern are demanding a round of free ale from our landlord, to help them drink away the embarrassment of Chris Samba training with Steve Bruce’s side.
The former Blackburn Rovers and QPR defender had his contract with Panathinaikos terminated in January and has since been on the lookout for a new club, even undergoing a trial with Premier League outfit Crystal Palace.
His arrival at Villa Park has been confirmed by The Birmingham Mail and Sky Sports claim he’s hoping to earn a short-term contract with the Championship club.
Admittedly, Villa are a little light on bodies at the back at the moment, with Tommy Elphick, Nathan Baker and James Chester the only natural centre-halves at Bruce’s disposal.
But Villa patrons in the Transfer Tavern really aren’t keen on the idea of Samba being brought into the first-team squad and our landlord reckons the whole saga could end catastrophically. Here are two reasons why.
Distorted memories
The great irony with Chris Samba is that his attacking contributions arguably had a bigger impact than his defensive efforts during his time in the Premier League. Sure, the 6 foot 4 centre-back always carries that beastly presence and he was a solid defender on his day, but he was far more memorable for last-minute goals, netting 16 Premier League strikes for Blackburn, when Sam Allardyce threw him upfield as an emergency striker.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does distort views of Samba’s previous spells in the Premier League and forces the question of what Villa could actually be signing; a decent defender or a poor one who glossed over his weaknesses with important goals. A rather torrid spell at QPR, coupled with how his career has panned out since, suggests the latter.
Injury prone mercenary
Samba left the Premier League for Russia for big money, returned to the Premier League for big money and after QPR were relegated… you guessed it, returned to Russia for big money. In short, he’s a bit of a mercenary and although Aston Villa have amongst the biggest financial resources in the Championship, they really aren’t in a position to be handing out bumper contracts to big-name players. For starters, it would set a worrying precedent throughout the squad.
Of course, most footballers in the modern game are complete mercenaries, driven by the amount of zeroes in their contract, but Samba is the worst kind of mercenary; ageing and incredibly injury prone. Injuries were one of the reasons Panathinaikos terminated his contract and rather tellingly, he’s managed only 63 appearances since leaving QPR three-and-a-half years ago. That’s less than 21 per season. The last thing Villa want is a high earner collecting his pay cheques in the physio room for the rest of the season.
