Drinkwater just wants to play, and save Aston Villa from relegation

Danny Drinkwater joined Aston Villa on loan yesterday. After six useless months at Burnley and two mostly useless years at Chelsea, he’s just hoping, first and foremost, to play. It’s not a complicated wish. He just wants to run around with a purpose, make a few passes, put in a few tackles. Maybe score a goal or two. He’s hardly kicked a ball in anger in the last 18 months, after all, let alone done anything meaningful in terms of his football career.

And in the meantime, if he can help save Aston Villa from relegation, then all the better.

“I’m massively excited, especially with it being a club as big as Villa. It’s a pleasure to be here and hopefully I can hit the ground running.

“Obviously, I want the club to stay in the Premier League, and personally I’m hoping for some game-time, which unfortunately didn’t happen at my last club.”

-Danny Drinkwater; source: Aston Villa FC

For their part, Villa are hoping that Drinkwater has a chip on his shoulder that he can turn into making a difference on the pitch.

Villa manager Dean Smith made a similar move for center back Tyrone Mings twelve months ago, taking a spare part from Bournemouth, making him a key part of their promotion campaign, and turning him into an England international. If Drinkwater can make half that sort of impact, I think we’re all going to walk away happy from this deal.