It's fair to say that Aaron Connolly has fallen well short of expectations up to this point in his career.
Having burst onto the scene as a 19-year old with a brace against Spurs on his Premier League debut, the striker has largely failed to kick on from that point.
He has been given the opportunities to do so. Brighton showed a huge amount of faith in him during this period and gave hum plenty of playing time, while Stephen Kenny also looked to make him a key part of his Ireland team after first stepping into the job.
Unfortunately, the Galway native failed to make the most of those chances despite some promising flashes. Since then, he has had unsuccessful loan spells at Middlesbrough and Venezia.
Having joined Hull City on loan this month, many feel like this could be a final opportunity to get his career back on track.
Aaron Connolly admits mistakes during football career
For the last couple of years, there have been suggestions that off-field issues had contributed to Aaron Connolly's lack of form. It was said that the professionalism required to make a mark in the modern game was sometimes lacking.
Speaking to Hull Live, he admitted that this had been the case in the past. However, having played his first 90 minutes at club level since April of last year earlier this week, he is ready to put that behind him. The forward is also hoping to help the club out of their current slump in form and move up the table.
It’s a massive point in my career. I’m 23 next week, being 19 feels like a long time ago when I was playing in the Premier League regularly.
That’s down to me and that’s stuff I’ve not been professional enough about. That mindset has completely flipped and if I can take anything positive from that Italy move, it’s that side of the game off the pitch, I had to get used to a different environment and just work. There was a lot of running in Italy but I’m starting to enjoy that bit of it as well, the professional side.
My last start was at the end of September with Ireland under-21s, so to get 90 minutes was big. I felt like I put in a decent shift for the team and hopefully if I can sharper and a little bit more match fit, I can help the club out...
It’s a bogey patch at the minute, the home form. But if we can perform like we did against Sheffield United against QPR and against Cardiff, then we’ll blow teams away in this league.
It’s about having that belief really and not letting that home side of the game, when we’re at home, affect us when we’re out there. The fans want to see us do well, we want to do well for them, and hopefully they can get behind us even more than they have, because they were top tonight.
It looks as though Aaron Connolly will be given a chance to make his mark at Hull in the weeks and months ahead.
Hopefully, he can rediscover the form that made his such an exciting prospect in the first place.
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