Villa’s Garde keen to bring Ashley Cole back to England

REUTERS – Aston Villa are interested in bringing former Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole back to England in the January transfer window, manager Remi Garde has confirmed.

Cole, who made 229 Premier League appearances over an eight-year spell at Chelsea, left London in July 2014 to join AS Roma on a free transfer, but has not played for the Italian side since March.

Villa, who have managed six points and languish at the bottom of the Premier League, have one win in 15 games this season and none under Garde.

They also have the worst goal difference in the division, and Garde is in the market for a left-back after a season-ending knee injury to Jordan Amavi.

“Every good player is interesting for me and Ashley is a good player,” Garde told reporters ahead of Sunday’s visit of second-placed Arsenal.

“He is someone who has experience but he didn’t play for a while now. Experience is also something we need.

“I will speak soon with the club and I’m already working on the January window. We know what we want to do.”

Jack Grealish has been restored to the squad, with Garde hoping he has learnt his lesson after being sent to train with the under-21s for visiting a Manchester nightclub following Villa’s 4-0 defeat at Everton on Nov. 21.

“He is a talented young player but only Jack knows if he has learnt,” the Frenchman said.

“I’ll still be close with him. I have the feeling Jack needs to be more disciplined, this way I feel he can improve his game.”

However, the manager is likely to be without captain Micah Richards, who has not trained this week after picking up a knee injury in the 2-3 defeat by Watford on Saturday, although forward Rudy Gestede and defender Leandro Bacuna are fit again.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)