Wow! Tony’s verdict on Cash
ENGLAND legend Tony Adams would like to have seen former club Arsenal capture Matty Cash when he left Nottingham Forest this summer.
Cash has made the step up to the Premier League look effortless since joining Aston Villa in a £14m move from the Reds.
The right-back has been earning high praise for his impressive performances in the top-flight, having cemented a place in Dean Smith’s starting XI.
He put in a stand-out display as his team triumphed 3-0 against the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday and made a big impression on Arsenal great Adams.
Working as a pundit on Sky Sports News, Adams said: “Look at Villa, the right-back Matty Cash the other night. Wow!
“Slough boy, Dagenham & Redbridge, then he’s gone to Nottingham Forest. What a player. He’s only 23.
“(Pierre-emerick) Aubameyang was in his pocket.
“Athletic, strong, what a great player.
“I thought that was a fantastic right-back performance and I would have loved him in an Arsenal shirt.”
Cash has started all seven of Villa’s Premier League games so far this season, playing a key role as they sit sixth in the table.
He told Villa TV last month: “No disrespect to the Championship but the quality of the wingers you come up against in the Premier League are next level and the pace they have is really hard to deal with.
“But I back myself in one-v-one situations and that’s what I’ll do. You’ve got to train hard in the week and, when it comes to the weekend, you’ve got to know to be ready and I feel like I’m doing that.”
ROTHERHAM United U i db boss P Paul Warne has debated whether speculation linking Matt Crooks with Nottingham Forest, among other Championship clubs, has affected the midfielder on the pitch.
The Reds were reportedly keen on signing the 26-year-old while Sabri
Lamouchi was still in charge.
But he remained at the Millers and netted his first League goal of the season at the weekend, as Preston North End were beaten 2-1 in the Championship.
Crooks was in and out of the team in the opening weeks of this term and has struggled for consistency.
In addition to uncertainty about his future, he also had to deal with the death of close friend Jordan Sinnott earlier in the year.
Asked whether transfer speculation could be behind the player’s slow start to the campaign, Warne told the Sheffield Star: “Could be, it is not an exact science.
“I don’t know how many of my players are absolutely 100 per cent but I think Crooksy sticks out because he was so influential over the last couple of years.
“If (Mo) Salah doesn’t play well for Liverpool, everyone notices.
“With Crooksy, he is getting more like the player we want him to be.
“Has the transfer rumour and anything else that has gone on in his life affected him? Maybe. But that is just an excuse. It might not have.
“Every player has dips and troughs in his form and they play their way out of it.
“Crooksy is doing a lot to get out the other side of it.”