Nathan Baker

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Seasons

Age*

Division

Appearances

Starts

Substitute

Unused

Goals

From

Played Under

Gérard Houllier |
Alex McLeish |
Paul Lambert |
Tim Sherwood |
Rémi Garde |
Roberto Di Matteo |
Steve Bruce |

First Squad Appearance

Debut Appearance

First Goal

Did not score

Final Appearance

Sunday, 7 May 2017

Brighton & Hove Albion (h), Championship

Final Squad Appearance

Sunday, 7 May 2017

Nathan Baker

Player #838 for Aston Villa, Nathan Luke Baker played as a centre back for the club between 2010-11 and 2016-17 making 122 appearances and scoring once.

Baker, born in Dines Green, Worcester on 23 April 1991, was promoted from the Youth Team in July 2009 before spending much of his debut season on loan at Lincoln City under former Villa player Chris Sutton.

Baker would return from his loan spell making his debut appearance for Villa in the 2010-11 campaign under Gérard Houllier.

His debut would come on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 aged 19 in the 2-1 Premier League win at Wigan Athletic. Baker would start the following game - the 4th Round FA Cup win over Blackburn Rovers - but received a red card in the 62’ leading to a 3 game ban.

Baker was immediately reinstalled by Houllier to Villa’s Premier League squad on his return from suspension and made three consecutive starts including his final game of the season - Villa’s 0-1 home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

For 2011-12 Villa and Baker had a new boss - Alex McLeish - and the young centre back would struggle for game time leading to a short loan spell with Millwall from November to January 2012.

Following his loan, Baker was named by McLeish in 15 consecutive squads, making his first appearance of the season as a 90’ substitute for Richard Dunne in the 0-1 home defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, 12 February 2012.

Baker would make his first start under McLeish on Saturday, 31 March 2012 and would be named in the starting line up in 6 consecutive matches - his longest run in the first team - through to Tuesday, 24 April 2012 during which time Villa recorded 3 losses and 3 draws, conceding 12 and scoring 5 leaving - run of games that left Villa with the distinct possibility of an end of season relegation.

Baker would miss out on selection for the next two games before returning as an 81’ substitute for Stephen Warnock in Villa’s final game of the season - a 0-2 defeat to Norwich City - with the club’s place in the Premier League already confirmed for the following season.

2012-13 brought Villa another new boss in Paul Lambert and with his policy of promoting lower league youngsters, Baker found a semi-permanent role in the side - making 30 appearances during a challenging campaign when only Christian Benteke’s goals kept Villa afloat and away from relegation.

Baker had started the first two league games of the campaign as Villa fell to successive defeats before losing his place ahead of being reinstated to the line up and becoming a virtual ever present starter from late November 2012.

That run of games however was less than auspicious, featuring Villa’s worst ever defeat in all competitions - the 0-8 defeat at Chelsea on Sunday, 23 December 2012. His and Villa’s following game was little better - a 0-4 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur - before injury ruled the young defender out of the side.

Despite Villa’s terrible form under Lambert, Baker was recalled to the side on his recovery from injury and made 18 starts in the 21 games to the end of the season as Villa secured their Premier League safety with four games to play.

2013-14 saw Villa surprise many with Lambert still in post and as a result Baker again feature prominently throughout another relegation fighting campaign - making 31 appearances.

For 2014-15 Lambert remained and Baker began the season in the squad as a starter in 7 of the first 12 games before injury ruled him out of contention for 10 games form November through to January 2015.

By his recovery the Lambert regime was finally in its painful death throes but Baker would feature in 4 squads, making a single start - in the 0-2 home defeat to Liverpool on Saturday, 17 January 2015 - before injury once again ruled him out for a further 9 games.

On his recovery from his latest injury setback Lambert was gone and Tim Sherwood had been installed as interim Villa boss.

Sherwood named Baker in four squads, handing him a single start and two substitute appearances before injury struck once more.

Baker returned to make his first league start under Tim Sherwood in the final game of the season on Sunday, 24 May 2015 in the 0-1 home defeat to Burnley. Baker was however surprisingly named by Tim Sherwood as an unused substitute in Villa’s FA Cup Final defeat to Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday, 30 May 2015.

2015-16 saw interim boss Tim Sherwood’s position made permanent for a season that proved a nadir for Villa as Sherwood (12 games) and Rémi Garde (23 games) presided over Villa’s worst ever season, relegated with just 17 points.

Baker however had the good fortune to not be at the club during the campaign as after four squad appearances and one League Cup start he was sent out on a season long loan to Bristol City.

By the time Baker returned to Villa Park the club were playing in the second tier for the first time in 28 years and another short-lived boss, Roberto Di Matteo (12 games) and his replacement Steve Bruce had the task of righting the wrongs of recent seasons.

For his part Baker found his level in the Championship and delivered by far his best season for Villa in 2016-17.

Baker was in and around the squad through to October 2016 but it was from December of that year that Baker blossomed. Under Bruce, Baker made 23 starts in 26 games to the end of the season as Villa finished a troubling 13th in the second tier.

Despite that it was some surprise that at the end of the campaign Baker was shown the door by Bruce having made his final appearance for Villa on Sunday, 7 May 2017 in the home draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Baker moved on to Bristol City in July 2017 for a fee of £3,900,000 aged 26.