£8.1m down the drain: Sherwood's "menacing" £28k-p/w flop rinsed AVFC dry for 523 days - opinion

Aston Villa have seen many players walk through the door at Villa Park over the years, either on loan or permanent deals.

However, as tends to be the case with most clubs, not all transfer deals that take place end up being particularly successful or worthwhile.

One questionable transfer that took place at the Midlands club was their 2015 move for striker Rudy Gestede.

During the 2015 summer transfer window, under the management of Tim Sherwood, the Villans secured a deal to bring the striker to Villa Park from Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £6m.

Having been described as a “menacing” figure on the pitch by Sherwood, the Benin international was anything but that for his side, finding the back of the net only five times in 32 Premier League appearances throughout the 2015/16 campaign.

Also, despite appearing in the majority of their league games, the attacker could only rack up 18 shots on target in total, which is fewer than the number of fouls (24) he committed, meaning he was more of a liability for his side than a capable attacking threat.

With fewer goals scored (27) than any other side in the top flight that season, Villa eventually found themselves at the bottom of the league table and destined for the second division.

After Villa’s relegation at the end of Gestede’s debut campaign with the Villans, things didn’t get much better for him in the Championship either.

In 18 appearances, the centre-forward only scored four goals before joining Middlesbrough in the 2017 January transfer window, bringing an end to his uninspiring time as a Villa player after just 523 days.

Even with his lack of regular goals at the Midlands club, it seemed as though they were right to let him go when they did, as the striker only managed to