A £5MILLION transfer to one of England’s biggest clubs as they made their way back to the top appeared to be the perfect move for Aaron Tshibola – until he discovered the dog eat dog world of the Championship promotion race.
The midfielder, just 21 at the time, thought he was getting a chance to help take the Villains back to the Premier League when signing in 2016.
He left second-tier rivals Reading, the club who raised him for almost a decade through their esteemed academy, to, as he puts it, “become a man”.
Despite thinking Villa would match their financial investment with considerable time and opportunities on the pitch, he was out after just six months.
Speaking to SunSport, Tshibola recalled how he felt ready to impress in what was an intimidating environment.
The 25-year-old said: “They had just come down and it was a massive transition for the club and they were trying to heal the pain of being relegated – a club of such magnitude that was obviously hard to take.
“They had some big players and I was thrown into a dressing room that had massive Premier League and international experience, we had Micah Richards who had won the title and played for England, Joleon Lescott, Gabby Agbonlahor…
“As a young player walking into that dressing room it was like, ‘Wow. I need to roll my sleeves up, this is the moment now. I need to deliver, I need to become a man’.
“It was a different type of challenge, I had gone from a family club and having the utmost support and care to one where it is everyone for themselves.
“I did feel like I was in my zone and finding my feet really quickly. But it wasn’t like Reading, you had to deal with things there and then, alone.”
'ALONE AND UPSET'
Although the player felt like he had settled well at Villa Park, the team’s results were mediocre and manager Roberto Di Matteo, assisted by Tshibola's old Reading boss Steve Clarke, was quickly sacked.
In came Steve Bruce, wanting to make his mark on a squad full of new players who were yet to bond.
Tshibola described the new boss as: “Very authoritative, confident, aggressive. He wanted things his way.
“I feel like, if you look at a lot of his teams, they gain promotion but you won’t see many young players.
“I wanted to play, I deserved to play and believed in my ability and wanted to be a star even though I was so young. I was thinking the club had invested in me but I never got a fair opportunity.
“The previous staff had almost all been sacked, if you’re talking about gaining feedback or some type of care… there was none of that in my case. Everyone that had brought me in had gone, so who do you look to?
“As a young player you think [Bruce] isn’t really approachable and he hadn’t really spoken to me. I was literally alone and I just tried to work hard in training. Of course I was upset.”
What followed were unsuccessful loan spells at Nottingham Forest and MK Dons that served to prevent a second chance at Villa, at this point finally back to competing at the top of the Championship.
The loan system has played in Tshibola’s favour during his career, earning fans’ affection as Hartlepool immaculately escaped relegation out of the Football League in 2015.
But stints in Nottingham and Milton Keynes revealed the downsides of being a temporary solution to a bigger problem.
He was one of three loanees brought to the City Ground late on in the 2017 January window and the lack of an instant impact saw them dropped amidst a relegation battle.
Tshibola recalled: “It was crazy, I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Who do you opt to now? Do you opt to loan players who, through their eyes, probably don’t have the same passion or mindset to help the club as their actual players – this is what they might think.
“What often happens, in their situation of fighting relegation and it was a hard time for the club, is they shove the loan players out as they can’t rely on them as they might not give a damn.
“They look to players signed to the club, academy players. As loan players it sucks as you want to play and help – my mindset was to come here to play, there was no way I would let the club down.
“Essentially I’m part of the club. But sometimes clubs or managers feel like they cannot rely on a loan player, that he might have a long-term contract somewhere else and that his head isn’t in it.”
The expectation of coming down from a big club to Stadium MK was also significant the following year as he failed to even see out the season before the Dons were relegated, seemingly one of several struggling clubs that Tshibola has wound up at.
Having found that early exit “really hard to take” he reunited with old boss Clarke at Kilmarnock, finding his feet again during 18 productive months in Scotland.
The now-Scotland manager is talked up as “instrumental” by Tshibola and arguably his best football came while in the Reading team under Clarke.
A breakout season was ended early by injury – just as the manager was sacked after holding talks with Fulham – and his departure to Villa the following summer came in acrimonious circumstances.
He noted: “I don’t think anybody actually knows my situation at that time – everyone was so quick to say, ‘Money grabber, it was him…’ and they point fingers at the players.
"But the reality is Reading hadn’t gone up and financially it was troubling for the club. All I kept hearing was the club was in a bad position and this was the time to leave.”
I was really baffled and really hurt, I had come up through the academy and this was my home."
Jaap Stam’s arrival as coach genuinely impressed the youngster and he says he vowed to knuckle down following the spell on the sidelines.
He continued: “I was like, ‘Wow, Jaap Stam. This is big’. When he came he called me straight away and explained what he had seen of me, how much he wanted me to stay and how he wanted me to play.
“I was really impressed and happy to be a part of it. I said to him I was happy to stay, I just wanted an improved contract.
“Weeks later I was still waiting. For me, it was getting a lot – it was in the news everywhere that offers were being placed and I was still waiting for [a new contract] to be placed on the table. It was very weird.
“I started getting mixed messages, I started to feel like they didn’t really want me. It was bizarre.
“I had sat in the office with the director and told him that, yes I was still a young kid but I wanted to feel like the rest of the players and like an important part of the club.
“He said the board were a bit skeptical of my injury. I was really baffled and really hurt, I had come up through the academy and this was my home.
“I wanted to stay, I had asked to stay and now they were telling me they weren’t sure. My head was flying and then I heard from the club that Norwich had a bid accepted and then rejected because of a clause Reading wanted.
“I had no knowledge about it and it had been accepted, it was all over the news. It was crazy, I didn’t even want to go there, and I felt like I was being sacrificed because the club could get some money out of me.
“As a young player, what do you? How do you deal with it? It was really frustrating, I couldn’t train properly. I told Stam my head wasn’t there and that if a Premier League club came in I wanted to leave.”
FAN ANGER
Perhaps most upsetting for Tshibola is that the narrative turned against him, from being a homegrown star to the arrogant disrupter that fans suddenly hated.
He added: “I was the ‘bad guy’. I was confused, it got to a point where I felt I needed to get out. I had been shown no love whatsoever and it was clear they wanted to sell me.
“It’s upsetting. I had seen all different things, that fans were bitter and the narrative is that I wanted to leave and pushed it through but what they didn’t know is that Reading made me feel that I wasn’t going to be part of the club.
“I just felt like I was in a situation where I needed certainty, something to show I was committed, but there were question marks everywhere.
“I had given everything to be in the first-team and worked my b******* off to be there, and I feel like I had a good connection with the fans. So to end it on a negative where all fans remember is being money hungry or trying to push through a move is upsetting.”
Two more teams fighting the drop have since accommodated Tshibola, who is now with Portuguese top-flight outfit Aves after a spell in Belgium.
Going abroad has helped him rediscover his motivation for developing on and off the pitch, a path he believes more young, English players should follow.
Tshibola surmised: “If you’re willing to come out of your comfort zone you will reap the rewards.
“I used to watch players like Zidane, Ronaldinho and Vieira, and all of them played in all of the top European leagues and that is my dream.
“I feel like, for a major part of my career, I’ve missed out on a lot of learning. Just because everyone thought I was the finished article.
“So I’m enjoying and embracing it. I’m playing against teams like Porto and Benfica. This is my dream.”
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