Matt Targett has joined newly promoted Aston Villa just after Southampton signed Che Adams, for a fee of around £15 million. He is Aston Villa’s 5th summer signing after Wesley, Jota, Anwar El Ghazi and Kortney Hause at Villa Park.
The 23 year old joins Aston Villa after spending 15 years at Southampton. “We’re very pleased to have Matt join us” Villa head coach Dean Smith told the club’s website.
“He’s a player we have been looking at for a considerable amount of time. He fits our criteria of being a young player with experience of playing in the Premier League and having the potential to develop further. He will help make us a stronger defensive unit and we are all looking forward to working with him.”
Player History
Matt Targett was a part of Southampton’s academy since the age of 8. He came through the youth setup before making his first team debut in the 2014/15 season. He couldn’t make many appearances as he was only 19, but he did manage to win the young player of the year of the club. The 2015/16 season saw him get more opportunities in the first team, as he made 14 appearances in the league, keeping 6 clean sheets and having 3 tackles and interceptions per game.
2016/17 didn’t bring too many opportunities as he could only muster 5 appearances in the league, but he only featured in one loss, making more than 4 tackles and interceptions a game.
On 22nd January 2018, he was loaned out to Fulham for the remainder of the season, as he made 18 appearances for the club, scoring one goal, 2 assists and keeping 9 clean sheets. Fulham did manage to secure promotion via a playoff victory over Aston Villa. 2018/19 season saw him get the maximum game time of his career when he made 16 appearances in the league scoring once, assiting on 3 occasions and putting up almost 3.5 tackles and interceptions per game.
Internationally, Targett has featured for Scotland under-18’s but switched to England under-19’s in September 2013. He has subsequently played for the youth levels on 22 occasions.
Fantasy Football Potential
Matt Targett is an uncertain one. They have Nathan Taylor at left back who is experienced but has also recently turned 30 and thus, Targett has the opportunity to start some games for the club and make the position his own. The Enlishman is more of an attacking full back as he likes to push forward. A proof of that is his 1 goal and 3 assists in about 1,100 League minutes. So, a price around £4.5 million is best suited for the left back.
Aston Villa have a relatively favorable opening set of fixtures once gameweek 1 is out of the way. They have an opening 5 of; Tottenham (A), Bournemouth (H), Everton (H), Crystal Palace (A) and West Ham (H). Not a bad run and Targett could be a good cheap option enabling some higher investment in the premium players.
Written by Tamish Behal (@Tamish_Behal)
