After a summer that saw Aston Villa splash out around £20m to bring in Emiliano Martinez from Arsenal, Dean Smith has an abundance of riches in the goalkeeping position.

Villa of course had to contend with an unprecedented injury crisis in that area last season, so it was perhaps no surprise to see the club go out and target a new number one.

But with Tom Heaton nearing a return to first-team action - he completed the full 90 minutes for the U23s against Stoke City recently - it's a position that poses major problems for Smith in terms of man-management.

As well as both Martinez and Heaton, Villa also have the likes of Lovre Kalinic and Jed Steer on their books, ready to call upon if needed.

Steer has been with the club for around seven years now after initially arriving from Norwich City back in 2013, and The Athletic's Gregg Evans has questioned how long the now 28-year-old can be happy playing second and third fiddle when he could be playing week-in and week-out elsewhere.

Whilst he's been a loyal servant in his time at Villa Park, surely the club have to be ruthless with the £20k-a-week ace. With Evans adding that Villa have found it very difficult to move on Kalinic, they should potentially refocus their attention on Steer, and allow him to be the man to go.

Both Tony Xia and now Nassef Sawiris can't be happy with the goalkeeping situation at Villa right now, and it appears best for all parties involved that they make a ruthless call on Steer and cash in on him in the upcoming transfer window.