BirminghamLive reports on Aston Villa, with Kerr Smith joining St. Johnstone on a season-long loan.
Kerr Smith will spend the rest of the season on loan at St Johnstone after agreeing to a new contract with Aston Villa.
The 19-year-old left Dundee United in January 2022, having played for the Scottish Premiership team since he was seven years old. He will now go back home to continue growing under Craig Levein, the manager of St Johnstone.
The Saints are now 10th in the Scottish Premier League after a difficult start to the season. Smith has made 11 appearances for the club’s youth teams this season, eight of which were in Premier League 2, the last six of which were in the starting lineup. Smith has yet to make his senior debut for Villa.
A number of young players, including Smith, will be leaving Villa in January to seek experience elsewhere. Adam Asghar, his former Dundee coach, was interviewed by BirminghamLive last year.
When I started this position in February 2019, I was working with Kerr at the time. Kerr would have turned 14 years old, according to Asghar. “The interesting thing about Kerr is that, even though I hadn’t met him yet, we had a game with the under-17s the Sunday after I arrived to work with the under-18s. Because we were severely short on players, I struck up a quick chat with Kerr, who was a midfielder at the time.
“Listen, would you please go play center back?” I said. I had never seen him before, when he was playing center defense against Queen of the South. I could tell right away there was a lot of room for improvement in that role.
He was a powerful, strong midfielder who excelled at passing the ball and moving out from behind the defense. Subsequently, I spoke with Brain Grant and Andy Boldly, telling them that this child possesses all the necessary skills to become a center-back.
Because of his skill with the ball, we continued to deploy Kerr in midfield throughout that time. He was a good midfield player.
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