Exclusive: Hutton tells 'Fantastic' player he knows very well to quit Aston Villa
Alan Hutton has urged Henri Lansbury to seal a move away from Aston Villa ahead of Friday's domestic transfer deadline.
The former Villa and Scotland star, speaking exclusively to Football Insider assistant editor Russell Edge, insists that his old teammate needs to get back to playing regular first-team football after a couple of difficult years at the club.
The midfielder, who played just 15 times last season, is into the final year of his £40,000-a-week contract at Villa and the Midlands outfit are keen to get him off the wage bill.
Hutton admits that things have been difficult for Lansbury at Villa Park and believes a late move could help him kickstart his career.
Hutton told Football Insider: "This is his final year, isn't it? Look, it's been a difficult situation for him, I think he is a fantastic player and he's just not been able to hold a place down regularly for a long time now.
"I think we've seen glimpses of him in the cup games of what he can do, he's just turned 30 now so he's just going to want to play football.
"If he can get a move somewhere that's going to guarantee football, he should take it because I know how much he loves the game and he'll want to play. It's just not happened for him at Villa.
"I think it would be perfect for him to go somewhere but if he feels the need to stay where he is and he's happy until the end of the season, so be it, but I do think at his age, he's not played a lot of football for a long time, he does have to get back into the swing of things and playing week in, week out.
"For his career and knowing him personally I think it would be best if he could go out, whether it be on loan or whatever and really get games under his belt again."
In other Aston Villa news, Hutton wowed by "another masterstroke" in transfer market.