Sheffield United loanee Conor Hourihane has admitted that he does not expect to play a Premier League game in the colours of Aston Villa again, speaking to the Yorkshire Live.
Villa Park was a very different place when Hourihane arrived from Barnsley in a £3 million deal nearly five years ago.
Aston Villa were a Championship club at the time, managed by Steve Bruce and under the stewardship of the Twitter-loving, big-dreaming Dr Tony Xia.
Hourihane actually joined the club in the same transfer window as Henri Lansbury, Birkir Bjarnason, James Bree, Neil Taylor and Scott Hogan.
Half a decade later, the 30-year-old Irishman is the only one of the aforementioned sextet still contracted to the Midland giants.
But not for much longer.
Has Conor Hourihane played his last game for Aston Villa?
Hourihane will be a free-agent at the end of this term.
And with Douglas Luiz, John McGinn, Emi Buendia, Morgan Sanson, Jacob Ramsey and the aptly-named Marvelous Nakamba now ahead of him in the pecking order, he is not expecting a claret-and-blue revival under Steven Gerrard.
“I am going to be a free agent in the summer, so I can’t be too picky,” says Hourihane, who admits he’d be keen to stay at Sheffield United if the opportunity presents itself.
“I have probably accepted it (that my Villa career is over) if I am being honest.
“I am old enough and wise enough to know what direction they are going in and what direction I might be going in. They are a club with a lot of money and going to invest heavily.
“That was one of the reasons why I was allowed to go out on loan.
“I have nothing but high praise for that football club. It’s an amazing club. I have had a great four-and-half-years there and it was one of the best decisions of my career to go there.
“Would I love to go back there and keep playing? Of course. They are in the Premier League and flying high, but such is life I will take the fond memories away from it and going back there probably won’t be an option.
“That chapter is probably closed.”
Hourihane has not really made the impact expected of him at Sheffield United.
Hourihane earned promotion to the Championship alongside ‘Hecky’ at Barnsley in the 2015/16 season.
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