Aston Villa's £16m gem admits 'two offers' were made last summer and reveals what made him quit social media
One of Aston Villa’s most experienced players was the subject of interest from two clubs over the summer
In-form defender Matty Cash has revealed that he had two opportunities to leave Aston Villa during the most recent summer window, but insists he was always focused on extending his stay in the West Midlands due to his strong relationship with manager Unai Emery.
The Poland international, who started his career at Nottingham Forest back in 2016, has been at Aston Villa since 2020. He was signed by former head coach Dean Smith for £16m after a superb final season at the City Ground which saw him win the club’s Player of the Year award, and has been a stalwart throughout his time at the club, earning the trust of three different managers.
He’s on 196 appearances and counting for the club heading into the November international break and is expected to become just the 53rd player in history to surpass the 200 mark for the club.
Matty Cash discusses reason he stayed at Aston Villa
Cash recently signed a contract extension which keeps him at the club until the summer of 2029. He had offers from two other clubs, with ESPN naming Nottingham Forest as one of the interested clubs, but told the outlet that the thought of leaving was never on his mind.
He said: "I had two offers from different clubs in the summer but I never really focused on that. My main priority is to stay at Villa. I think Villa's a great club, I've done a lot of work there obviously over the years to progress as a player and I still think there's a lot more to go to be honest.
"So my main priority I said in the summer to the manager when we had a chat that I wanted to stay, I wanted to keep improving and this year I think I found a good little bit of form and [I was] delighted that they came to me and offered me a deal.”
Matty Cash is currently the league’s most in-form right-back
Aston Villa started the season slowly before their recent resurgence, but Cash has never allowed his standards to slip at any stage this season. The 28-year-old was the first Villa player to score in the league this term after firing in the opener at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland while he also netted the winner against Manchester City at Villa Park last month.
Cash’s performances have earned him plenty of praise from Villa fans and neutrals in recent weeks. But the Polish star admits that social media hasn’t always been the easiest thing for him.
During his conversation with ESPN, he also reflects back on the time where he injured Rodrigo Bentancur with a mistimed challenge in November 2023 - ruling the Uruguayan out for a month. He said: "these things just happen in today's football" and the Villa defender said: "Obviously, I didn't mean the tackle on Bentancur. I went for the ball, but it's a challenge and obviously there was a lot of stuff [afterwards].
"I did actually delete social media that week because it was quite bad but it didn't affect me in terms of [thinking] wow this is so bad, everyone's abusing me.' I just blocked it out and thought 'I didn't mean the tackle.'"
Cash is currently on international duty with Poland, who are preparing to take on group leaders Netherlands and Malta. Poland are second in their group and three points behind the Oranje heading into the contest.