It's been a difficult week for fans of Aston Villa.
Having been told last week that Fabian Delph values his loyalty to the club more than anything, only to have him say a few days later that he actually thought about it and wants to join Man City, they watched as their star midfielder left the club to become a squad player.
Immediately on the back of Delph to City, they were resigned to losing their star striker Christian Benteke to Liverpool, which looks to be completed sooner rather than later.
Amongst the departures there was one new arrival at Villa Park, but any excitement and optimism over Idrissa Gueye's Villa career has been flattened by his first interview withe club, where he basically called the club a stepping stone to better things as he said:
The most important thing was to get to England for my progression, and to look to play for great clubs in the future.
Now, Villa fans would have had no problem if he did eventually perform well enough to warrant a big money move to a Champions League club, but to actually say that your plan is to leave for a bigger club is not a good idea.
You just don't say that, Idrissa. He did go on to speak posivitely of Tim Sherwood as he explained the role the manager played in making him sign:
The coach and I got on well straightaway. I saw the vision of how he wants us to play and where he counted on using me. He had watched a lot of my games.
That gave me confidence. He told me some very nice things, and that pushed me to take this decision. I preferred to sign quickly so that I could do the preseason with my new club.
But the damage had been done.
It will be interesting to see how the former Lille man gets on as he tries to fulfill his dream of playing for a bigger club than Villa, the team he just signed for.
via ESPN.
