Steven Gerrard gets another glimpse of wonderkid who could save Aston Villa millions

Steven Gerrard will run the rule over highly-rated Aston Villa youngster Kaine Kesler Hayden in pre-season after the defender’s double dose of loan success last term.

Kesler Hayden shone in League Two with Swindon Town during the first half of the season, scoring once in 21 appearances for the promotion-chasing Robins, before moving to MK Dons in January. The right-back continued to excel at the top of League One as the Dons narrowly missed out on promotion via the play-offs.

The 2021 FA Youth Cup winning captain is rated by Villa Park chiefs and penned a new five-year contract last year. That deal is the longest Villa have ever given to a teenager, surpassing the four-year contract handed to Jack Grealish in 2014.

Gerrard assessed Kesler Hayden in January for three weeks before deciding to send him to MK Dons on loan. The defender has continued to develop and will give Gerrard another decision to make this summer.

Villa were light at right-back last season with Matty Cash often the only senior option available to Gerrard. In addition to Kesler Hayden, Villa had Frederic Guilbert out on loan at Strasbourg.

Guilbert is also back at Bodymoor Heath for pre-season looking to make an impression on Gerrard. But Kesler Hayden, at 19, is viewed as the natural long-term successor to Cash - who penned a new five-year contract of his own in April.

“I’ve been training Kaine with a group of players since he was an under-15, so I’ve seen him for quite a while,” Jamie Atkins, who has been hired by Kesler Hayden for private coaching sessions in the past, told BirminghamLive last year.

“He’s a quiet lad in the sessions but he’s very hard-working and eager to improve. It wasn’t a surprise that he was recently called up by England.