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When Aaron Tshibola was signed from Reading in 2016 for around £5million (yes, FIVE million) he wasn’t a name that many Villa fans would have heard of, but seemed to be a positive signing for Villa’s championship journey. While Reading fans weren’t too upset to see him leave, he was still a young prospect and there was a touch of excitement about the unknown midfielder from the Villa fans, so why is Aaron Tshibola yet to leave his mark and what is next for man struggling to find his feet at Villa Park?
Seeing as Steve Bruce doesn’t seem too keen on him, Tshibola’s Villa career is looking increasingly unlikely to flourish, but the current disarray at the club could always open some doors for those previously shunned such as Aaron Tshibola himself. He’s yet to have a full season at Villa, being sent on loan in both his campaigns with the club so far, and unfortunately this does show very clearly what the people at Villa think of him. Nottingham Forest took him in January 2017 and found him to be nothing special and nothing that they wanted to pursue further. Then MK Dons came knocking in the Summer of 2017 and terminated his loan at the halfway point after seeing him more as a burden than a benefit, and finally Kilmarnock took him on loan in January 2018, where he was slightly more promising by all accounts, but didn’t star as you would expect a special player to do in Scotland.
Can Aaron Tshibola Re-Establish Himself?
The signs aren’t looking too promising for the midfielder, and nothing on his track record suggests he has the ability to play regularly for a club like Aston Villa (at least not yet anyway) as the 23 year old struggles to nail down a place anywhere he goes. Of course the constant relocating will never be easy for anyone and could be very unsettling for him and certainly for his confidence, but if he wants the consistency of staying at and playing for Villa, then he needs to perform when he gets the chance elsewhere too.
With the current state of the club, Aaron Tshibola may be keen to take a chance and impress in pre-season, knowing it is improbable that any special midfielders are going to be brought in before the season’s start. You would still think he is pretty far down the pecking order, behind the likes of Hourihane, Lansbury, Bjarnason, Grealish, and even O’Hare, so his chances are still going to be limited even if he does stay, which is why it is more likely than not that he will leave this Summer. He is somebody the club can use to make a quick bit of money to help themselves, and he is certainly not someone that we will miss at the moment.
Apart from his late equaliser against Newcastle in 2016, Aaron Tshibola hasn’t left any marks at Villa and while the club struggle to bring in new faces, he still is unlikely to get any real chances, especially while Bruce is in charge, so unless he tears every tree up in pre-season (in which it is thought Bruce will give him some opportunity to prove himself) the 23 year old Congolese international is unlikely to be an Aston Villa player come the end of the transfer window, if he wants to be playing regular first team football next season.
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Words by Matt Blogg (@Blogg_Matt) // Follow us on Twitter (@claretandview)
