The current Aston Villa midfielder was the subject of a surprise bid from Derby County in January.
The fact that Henri Lansbury is still yet to open his account for Aston Villa after ten games yet has still comfortably outscored each and every midfielder in Derby County’s squad speaks volumes about the problems facing Steve McClaren.
The Rams have scored just 39 league goals all season, the seventh lowest tally in the league. Yet, that really should not be the case. Craig Bryson netted 16 mostly thunderous goals from midfield in 2013/14 while Bradley Johnson hit 15 for Norwich two seasons ago.
This time around, they have got just three between them while Will Hughes and Jacob Butterfield, both capable of netting from range, have netted two and none ‘respectively’.
What Derby would give for a player capable of netting from deep to take the pressure off Tom Ince and Darren Bent. The BBC reported in January that McClaren had launched an audacious £2.5 million bid for Lansbury, then the captain of The Rams East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest, only for City Ground club to unsurprisingly reject the offer out of hand.
Though perhaps Derby should have pulled out all the stops to ensure the 26-year-old, out of contract in the summer, was to pick the iPro over Villa Park. At the time, he’d netted six already for Forest including a hat-trick at Barnsley. Derby’s current midfielders could only dream of such a feat.
Lansbury’s sub-standard form at Villa won’t give too many Rams supporters sleepless nights but, who knows, he may have been the man McClaren was looking for.
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