Revealed: Smith green light for Aston Villa to sell his £30K-a-wk signing in January
Dean Smith has given the green light for Aston Villa to sell goalkeeper flop Lovre Kalinic in January, Football Insider understands.
The Premier League club will look to cash in on the Croatia international, 29, in the winter window after failing to offload him during the summer.
A Villa source has told Football Insider that the plan is to shift out Kalinic just a year after he was signed for £7million and handed a four-and-a-half-year deal worth £30,000-a-week.
There is little hope of recouping the fee spent on Kalinic after he plummeted to fourth in the keeper pecking order at the Midlands giants.
He has made only eight Villa appearances since signing last December in a deal that was announced at the start of the January window.
Kalinic was installed as the number one by Smith but made a series of errors and has not played for the club since being substituted at half-time in February.
Villa recognise, their current keeper injury crisis notwithstanding, there is little point having an 18-times Croatia international signed for big money as the fourth choice in goal.
Number one Tom Heaton and his deputy Jed Steer are currently injured but the England international's absence is not expected to be a lengthy one.
Orjan Nyland came off the bench to replace Steer in the recent 2-1 defeat to Wolves and is in line to start against Newcastle United after the international break.