Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
Some Aston Villa fans will have to eat humble pie regarding Wembley hero
Aston Villa are back in the big time after defeating Derby County in the Championship play-off final yesterday. The hero for Dean Smith’s side was Dutch winger Anwar El Ghazi. The on-loan attacker scored the opening goal of the game. It was then his deflected long-range strike that Kelle Roos made a mess of to allow John McGinn to score a crucial second.
It was a brilliant display from the former Ajax youth product who will now be one of the top names on Aston Villa’s wishlist when it comes to permanent signings in the summer.
However, that was not the case back in January.
Aston Villa released fellow wideman Yannick Bolasie from his loan spell at Villa Park that month. The Everton man had struggled to have an impact with Aston Villa and the club decided it was best he was sent back to Goodison Park to free up salary.
El Ghazi has no end product. You can see he has potential but is not doing enough to influence games. Get rid
— Jon Walker (@JonWalker1983)
Kalinic, Hutton, Taylor, Jedinak, Hourihane, Kodjia, El Ghazi. Get rid of them all, wouldn’t miss one of them.
— Daniel Kimber (@DanielJKimber)
Now get rid of El Ghazi and Bolasie
— Papyruzzed (@Papyruzzed1)
For years the model of AVFC has been wrong, ageing stars on huge money is not sustainable, time to start again with kids and build with Dean Smith @ the helm , if it takes 10 years so be it , Bolasie El Ghazi etc should have Loan’s cancel
— Vernon Morrissey (@villa_vernon)
Send e ghazi and bolasie back terminate there loans just not working. House looks terrible as well
— Robert Gibbons (@robgibb01)
Totally agree, with regards to Bolasie & El Ghazi I’m fed up with loaning these passengers who aren’t good enough for their parent clubs. Why would they be enough for Villa? I’d rather we implanted our own youth than these mercenaries
— COOKIE (@1_COOKIE__1)
When that happened there were plenty of Aston Villa fans who felt that El Ghazi should be on his way out as well. He had struggled during the first half of the season and often found himself out of the starting XI and sometimes the matchday squad. The fans in question cannot even be blamed for their reaction. El Ghazi was not playing well at all and Aston Villa would have been right to cancel his loan and find someone else.
But his form over the final three months of the season proved crucial in Aston Villa’s great end to the campaign. He has now topped it all off with a star showing at Wembley. Aston Villa fans will now be calling for his permanent transfer for next season and the 24-year-old has earned that distinction.
Plenty of Aston Villa fans will be happy to eat humble pie regarding El Ghazi now.