OPINION
Aaron Tshibola is bound to go down as one of the worst signings that Aston Villa have ever made.
The 23-year-old was snapped up from Reading for £5million (Mirror) in July 2016, but since then he has had four loan spells away from Villa Park at three different clubs and has only managed 10 appearances across all competitions for the Villains.
The former Reading midfielder is currently on a second loan stint at Kilmarnock, and he is performing quite well for Steve Clarke’s side with his five Scottish Premiership appearances resulting in four wins – one of which against Celtic – and one defeat.
However it is clear that no matter how well Tshibola does on loan at Rugby Park, he is never going to show he was worth the £5million that Dr Tony Xia tossed down the drain when he signed him just over two years ago.
It was Roberto Di Matteo who welcomed Tshibola to Villa Park but Xia’s lack of football knowledge and putting trust in the wrong people led to him sanctioning an awful lot of terrible transfers.
Tshibola was never going to be worth £5million and the decision to sign him at all from Reading – no matter the fee – was a head-scratcher as he had only ever played 17 times for them.
Thankfully, Xia is no longer in total control at Villa Park, but the club will never see that cash again from signing Tshibola as he will be in the last year of his contract next summer and will surely leave the club on a free in 2020 or on a super cut-price deal in 2019.
Either way, Aston Villa need to get rid of the 6ft 3 (transfermarkt) midfielder as soon as possible.
His failed loan spells at Nottingham Forest and MK Dons say it all.