Aston Villa must finally sell £13m flop who Gerrard was “delighted” to sign

Aston Villa haven’t experienced such a crisis in confidence since Steven Gerrard was in the Villa Park hot seat, when winless runs were the norm in the West Midlands under the unsuccessful manager.

Indeed, the Liverpool icon turned Villa boss would bow out from his managerial duties at the club with just two wins registered in the Premier League at the start of the 2022/23 season, leading to Unai Emery taking on the reins.

Now, the Spaniard has his work cut out for him with no victories in his last eight.

But, it wasn’t all doom and gloom with Gerrard at the helm looking back, considering the 44-year-old did sign off on some exciting signings during his brief tenure.

Best Gerrard signings at Villa

The obvious place to start here is Lucas Digne, who remains in the first team to this day under Emery, after being purchased for £25m in January of 2022 by Gerrard.

This season alone, the 31-year-old has amassed 16 appearances in all competitions, with two assists also coming the ex-Everton full-back’s way to prove his worth to Emery’s current troops.

Gerrard also sanctioned the standout purchase of Phillippe Coutinho when he was in charge, using his Anfield connections to lure the Brazilian back to England on a permanent £17.2m deal.

The 32-year-old showed flashes of his quality under this previous regime, with six goals and three assists tallied up overall, but now finds himself out of the first-team picture and out on loan in his native Brazil.

Whilst there were minor success stories under the now Al-Ettifaq boss’ stint, there were also some really poor acquisitions that entered the building, which is definitely the case with this forgettable Villa recruit.

Dendoncker’s time at Villa

The dud in question here is former Wolverhampton Wanderers star Leander Dendoncker, who swapped Molineux for nearby Villa in September 2022 for a bumper £13m.

There was plenty to justify Villa forking out this amount to win the Belgian at the time too, who had caught the eye in the West Midlands for the Old Gold before moving on, with 12 goals accumulated over 159 clashes from the middle of the park.

Gerrard also intensified the fanfare around the 29-year-old’s arrival by stating that he was “delighted” to welcome Dendoncker to the club when the signing was unveiled, with many at Villa Park hopeful that the fresh face was going to be a success…

“I’m delighted to get them in. It was a challenge in both situations because they were very much in demand, so for them to choose Aston Villa and want to come here and play for us is important. Again, the work behind the scenes to get that done was crucial so well done to them as well.”

But, much like the arrival of Jan Bednarek on loan around the same time, who Gerrard was also excited by, the ex-Wolves man would go down as a flop, with the 6 foot 2 midfielder now on loan at RSC Anderlecht and suffering the same fate as Coutinho in the process.

Unfortunately, to date, Dendoncker has only pulled on a Villa jersey a slim 36 times over the course of two lacklustre seasons, with only eight Premier League contests coming his way under Emery last season.

With talk that the 29-year-old could be permanently moved on very soon, it feels very likely that no more games will be gifted to Dendoncker at his parent club, especially when you consider the options the Spaniard has at his disposal in midfield over the forgotten Gerrard buy.

Emery will just hope he can turn around Villa’s drop in form, unlike his predecessor, with games coming thick and fast in December, away from focusing in on Dendoncker’s precarious future at the Premier League strugglers.