Aston Villa confirmed on Friday afternoon that Lovre Kalinic left the club to re-join HNK Hajduk Split. The 32-year-old signed a three-year deal at his former club after three disappointing years in the Midlands and won’t be missed by supporters.
Kalinic made just eight appearances since joining the Villans from KAA Gent in January 2019, conceding 15 goals and keeping just one clean sheet. The Croatian international made all his appearances when Villa were still in the Championship, so he hasn’t played a single minute of football in three years.
Villa paid £5.4m to sign Kalinic and paid him £15.7k-per-week/£0.8m-a-year in wages, so they’ve wasted £8.2m on a player that featured only eight times across the board. The Midlands outfit were so desperate to get Kalinic off the books, they terminated his contract 12 months early.
The 32-year-old had recently returned to pre-season training after his loan spell at Hadjuk Split, but he was always expected to move on this summer as Emiliano Martinez, Robin Olsen and Jed Steer were ahead of the Croatian shot-stopper in the pecking order.
Kalinic wasn’t going to fetch a lot of money, so Villa have instead opted to clear his salary off the wage bill.
In other news, Kevin Campbell says Steven Gerrard should ‘cut his losses’ on Trezeguet
