VfB Stuttgart’s Borna Sosa would be a perfect first signing for Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard

Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has only had one game in charge of the club and rumours are already circulating about whom his first signing may be.

One that has picked up a lot of traction over the last 24 hours is VfB Stuttgart’s young left-back, Borna Sosa.

Sosa, 23, is fast becoming one of the hottest prospects in the Bundesliga and has more recently solidified himself as the Croatian national team’s first choice left-back.

It’s no secret that Gerrard puts a lot of emphasis on his full-backs to get forward - he did so with his young Liverpool side and then even more so with Rangers.

Sosa has provided 21 assists and scored one goal in his top flight career to date and whilst the latter could certainly use some work, that number of assists is superb and will have the Villa manager gleaming.

Out of the current crop, Matt Targett has struggled the most this campaign and therefore the links to the Croatian or any left-back of that matter don’t really come as any surprise.

That’s not to say a new signing would instantly mean the end for Targett because healthy competition is a must in top sides, especially those that have the aspirations that Villa have.

But it’s certainly an area most are keen to improve and the 23-year-old could certainly help do that.

At such a young age he has already surpassed half a century of appearances in the German first division, being deployed as both as left-midfielder and left-back during that time - showing not only his versatility, but his attacking capability, too.

And if you take into account all of his professional performances, including those of top tier Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb, he’s already exceeded 100 appearances in all competitions at just 23-years-old.

He played 1240 of 1260 possible minutes in the recent World Cup qualifiers, the only player from Stuttgart to start all 14 competitive games. His development is growing at an extremely impressive rate and it’s easy to see why he’s catching the eye of clubs around Europe.

According to German tabloid Bild, who describe the young Croatian as ‘Stuttgart’s god of flank,’ Gerrard is real keen on the idea of bringing Sosa to Villa Park and he could be available for a fee of around £25million.

They also add that Stuttgart are desperate for funds having ‘made a loss of 80 million euros’ since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

And although it’s never nice to see any club struggling financially, it could benefit the claret & blue if and when it gets down to the negotiation stage.

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