‘I’M SO HUNGRY TO GO UP WITH VILLA’
EVEN Homes Under the Hammer couldn’t have done better than this Hause deal.
Hardly used in 18 months, clean and tidy, good upstairs and down, ready for use straight away and an owner keen to sell.
Aston Villa got a bargain when they took Kortney Hause.
Since arriving on loan from Wolves in January, Hause has started Villa’s last seven games.
He lost the first two, but since then Villa have been on fire, unbeaten in five, winning four on the bounce and only Stoke and Nottingham Forest getting a goal each past him.
Going into next Saturday’s home game with Blackburn, Villa are back in the Championship top six and looking capable of staying there.
Hause and fellow loanee Tyrone Mings (Bournemouth) have given Villa a central defensive strength not see since John Terry was playing alongside James Chester last season.
Former manager Steve Bruce put that partnership together and it nearly got Villa into the Premier League, losing the play-off final to Fulham.
It will be interesting what Bruce does against Hause-Mings when his Sheffield Wednesday team come up against Villa at Hillsborough a week on Saturday.
Opportunity
Villa’s other run-in fixtures are against Rotherham (a), Bristol City (h), Bolton (a), Millwall (h), and then the big two of Leeds (a) and Norwich (h).
There’s opportunity there to at least make the play-offs again and, if they do get up, Villa would look to permanently sign Hause and Mings, not to mention goalscorer Tammy Abrahams, who is on loan from Chelsea.
Don’t go up and Villa won’t have the money to buy any of them and the Hause move will be back to Wolves. But the Hause was unoccupied there.
He played one league game, a 3-0 win over Brentford, in 18 months as Nuno Espirito Santo built his defence of Ryan Bennett, Connor Coady, Willy Boly and Matt Doherty that took Wolves into the Premier League.
Hause was locked out. He watched from the bench.
“Watching other players at Wolves succeed and get promotion has made me hungry,” admits Hause, 23. “I want that as well, to do the same at Villa.
“Hopefully we can carry on after the international break, really put our foot on the gas and give it a good go.”
Villa boss Dean Smith gave Hause a month from the point of signing him to get ready to be a first team player again.
Hause’s 27-minute debut off the bench in a 3-0 defeat at Wigan, one of the low points in Villa’s season, didn’t go well a week after joining and it was a month before he was picked again.
“He had a tough baptism when we got beat at Wigan and I threw him on in what wasn’t a good performance,” recalls Smith.
“Hause has got fitter and fitter and better with each game. We didn’t judge quickly at all because we the potential was there. “He just needed minutes and we had a couple of behind closed doors games at the training ground which he played in and he has got better and better since then. “We had to bring it out by coaching him and making Hause physically fit as well. We are seeing the fruition of that. He is a player of tremendous potential and is still very young. “The option to buy Hause went in the loan because we thought he could have a future at Villa.”
Initially, Hause was playing at full back and not always comfortable there. Injuries to Chester and Tommy Elphick have now brought him his chance at centre-back.
“Any player will tell you, you can only train so much,” says Hause. “You need to be out there playing games and you need to be in game situations.
“I’m getting that at Villa. I feel as if I’m dealing with it okay. I always expect more from myself but with more games, I’m only going to get better and gain more experience. It is more fulfilling, definitely.
“To be playing in a team actually pushing for promotion is way better than sitting on the bench.
“I did learn from just watching, but if I’m not playing, I’m not goknew
Hopefully carry on we can break after the put and really our foot on the gas
ing to be the happiest. You also have to respect the players that are playing, though. I still want the players to do well. They are my teammates, my friends and if they win, I win. I do get pleasure out of that.
Quality
“But most certainly being a player and going out there and contributing in front of the fans, you want to do that.
“It’s four wins in a row for us now against quality opposition.”
Villa thrashed a tired looking Derby 4-0, won that controversial local derby at Birmingham 1-0, got a good victory 3-1 at Forest and undid Middlesbrough’s defensive plan 3-0.
“I thought we played well in the
1-1 draw at Stoke before this run,” says Smith. “That was the start of it.”
Sam Vokes, with his only goal so far since joining Stoke, scored in that one and the only other goal conceded was Jack Colback’s for Forest.
“And that was a cross,” smiles Smith.
Terry, defensive coach now at Villa, has been working on Mings and Hause and moulded them into a strong unit.
“We’ve been working hard with John Terry at training,” says Hause. “What we’ve been practising in training, we’ve been doing in games and the results are showing. I’ve been looking at my video clips with John Terry and he’s been helping me a lot.
“The aim before this run of wins was to get into the play-offs and now we are hungry for more and will fight to the end.
“We can stay in the top six, 100 per cent. We are young, we are confident and we are hungry.
“There is no reason why we can’t stay in sixth or push on and go even higher.”
Jack Grealish and John McGinn are key ingredients in this new, revived Villa and Hause accepts that.
“They’ve both got great ability,” says Hause. “We all know how good they are and having them both in the team is a big plus.
“Come the next game, I can guarantee you we will be ready and ‘at it’ to get the three points.”
As Madness almost said: “Our Hause, in the middle of defence, our Hause.”
I’ve been looking at my video clips with John Terry and he’sbeenhelping me a lot