Cost £2.75m, now worth 73.8% less: Aston Villa had lucky escape over “anonymous” flop - opinion

Aston Villa have shown that they are not averse to spending significant amounts of money when it comes to bringing new players to the club if they feel that doing so can strengthen their squad and take the club forward.

Nor have Villans been shy when it comes to moving players out of the Midlands if they don’t think they have the quality on the pitch to match the club’s ambitions.

One player who was moved on in recent times is midfielder Henri Lansbury, who originally arrived at Villa Park from Nottingham Forest in January 2017 in a deal worth more than £2.75m.

During his time in the Midlands, the midfielder – who was slammed for his “anonymous” performances at times – made 53 appearances across all competitions, chipping in with two goals and nine assists along the way.

In January 2021, Villa called time on Lansbury’s spell at the club by securing a deal with Bristol City to take him on a free transfer.

The Englishman made just 16 appearances for the Robins in the Championship and failed to impress, earning an underwhelming overall performance rating of 6.39/10 from WhoScored, making him one of the lowest-rated players to have started more than three league games for them.

Presumably as a result of his lacklustre spell in Bristol, the former Villa midfielder then found himself on the move again with another free transfer, this time to Luton Town last summer.

Since then, things haven’t gone too well for the 31-year-old once again, with no goals or assists to his name but with more yellow cards than any other Luton player (eight), also lumped with an underwhelming overall performance rating of 6.53/10.

According to Transfermarkt, the ex-Nottingham Forest man’s current market value stands at just £720k, which is a 73.8%