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Loanee Yannick Bolasie has returned to his parent club today to attempt to break into the first team at Everton.
Words by Mark Jirobe (@VillaMarkPGH)
Aston Villa have confirmed that the loan of Yannick Bolasie has been terminated and the player will be returning to his parent club to attempt to break into the first-team. After a rather lacklustre showing against Hull City, Bolasie was heard getting booed as he walked to the touchline to be substituted. Depending on where you’re reading your news, there is wild speculation of how exactly the termination of Bolasies’ loan came to be. On one hand, there are reports that Bolasie triggered a clause in his loan agreement contract where he could return to Everton. On the other hand, there is speculation that Aston Villa themselves informed Everton that the winger was no longer needed.
So where did it go wrong for Bolasie at Aston Vila?
Regardless of why Bolasie is returning to Everton, his Aston Villa tenure has been hit and miss to say the least. Bolasie was never going to sign on a permanent deal for Aston Villa. At 29 years of age and after a plethora of injury woes during his career, it was a far cry to even entertain the idea that Bolasie would be at Villa past the current season. This seems to be a curse of Aston Villa at the present time. Securing loan deals of semi-well known footballers that have zero chance of the being retained on a permanent basis is not the way forward for any club and surely not for a club with aspirations such as Aston Villa.
Bolasie was acquired during Steve Bruce’s time at the club and seemed a good piece of business. Any one who even slightly follows the Premier League knew that Bolasie’s services would not come at a cheap price. But when Aston Villa fans found out that the club were fronting 70-80 thousand pounds for a loanee, questions came to the forefront hard and fast.
The contributing wage for Aston Villa became much more alarming after Bolasie seemed to regain full-fitness. Bolasie is known to be a a ‘bag of tricks’ footballer, in which football supporters love to see as long as you’re even trying to contribute in other areas of the game. To claim that the Everton man was a ‘team first’ player while at AVFC would be incredibly wrong. It would be more common to see Bolasie try and take on the entire defense himself at times, before hoofing the ball into Row Z. There were smatterings of amazing trickery, guile, skill and crosses…but they were too few and far between for most Villa supporters. This lack of team ethic was not ever going to stand under Dean Smith the way it may have stood under Steve Bruce. The more you think about the loan of Bolasie as a whole, it seems painfully obvious that his stint at Aston Villa was nothing more than a conditioning and rehabilitation stint after coming off a knee injury.
When all of the pieces are put together, there is no wonderment of why the loan deal was not going to work for Aston Villa as a cohesive squad or as a business. New management at Villa are beginning to take the first steps on making sure smart and sound business decisions are the standard moving forward. The now available wages that were going to Bolasie could be used to bring in some younger talent on loan-to-buy deals and that’s something that needs to happen a lot more at the Midlands club.
He looked good in very small bursts but nowhere near the standard we need and his inconsistency was depressing. I also don’t think he fits into Dean Smith’s vision. Bolaise was a big-name, high risk move by Bruce and those wages were irresponsible in our position. We don’t need marquee signings who use the club as a rehabilitation centre. We need young, hungry players who will grow and learn under Smoth and want to be part of Aston Villa. Andre Green is exactly the kind of player we need.