Nathan Baker

[wittonwarrior]

Just announced his retirement following a head injury.   All them bricks he headed!  Seriously had a bit of a raw deal at the Villa, no way was he worse than Elphick.

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought Elphick was much better, personally.

However, neither were very good.

[UK Redsox]

I thought Elphick was much better, personally.

However, neither were very good.

At least Baker didn’t bang goalposts or hoof the ball to the corner flag during the warm up.

[Exeter 77]

Apart from flogging his 2010 League Cup Final tickets on Facebook I don't think Nathan ever let us down or gave less than his all for Villa but even in his early days in the first team he seemed to have a knack of picking up head injuries so the reason for his retirement isn't really a surprise.

[cdbearsfan]

He was a million times better than Elphick. Shame for Baker, he had terrible luck with injuries. Hope he has a decent retirement, wouldn't be amazed to see him end up as manager.

[Deano's Mullet]

He was better than Ciaran Clark.

[Goldenballs]

I liked him, played like a fan throwing his body in the way of everything.

He was shagging my mates cousin for a bit.

[cdbearsfan]

Merge with the Nathan Baker thread below please.

[Brend'Watkins]

He was better than Ciaran Clark.

He really wasn’t. Clark is a far better footballer than Baker ever was his career to date is testament to that. Baker threw his body on the line always and invariably got himself injured doing so. Not very smart of him.

[SoccerHQ]

Never the best defender but always gave 100% and certainly put his head in where it hurt many times, think he was concussed a few times playing for us.

Wish him well, hopefully he's got stuff lined up after finishing playing given he's had a few months knowing it was coming seeing as he hasn't played since November.

[nigel]

I thought he could have been a very good centre half.
I don’t think he had the best role models at the time so was probably never given any decent coaching.
I think had his time been around in the Dean Smith era with JT things may have been different.

Best of luck in his retirement

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Best of luck Nathan in your retirement!
Thanks for your whole-hearted attitude when playing for Villa.

[eamonn]

Will he need to work again? Must be a millionaire, no?

[Hopadop]

At his best he was very good. In the rare win at Spurs in 2015 he was an early sub and Kane got nothing at all out of him. The home supporters were massively impressed.

[Diablo]

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-nathan-baker-retires-24880724