Glenn Whelan played a huge part in Aston Villa earning promotion to the Premier League.
When Aston Villa earned promotion to the Premier League, the club had to make a number of ruthless calls in deciding to release a number of their popular figures, from Albert Adomah to Glenn Whelan.
Whilst Adomah has already found a new club since his Villa release, it seems as though midfielder Whelan, who is still a free agent, might also be joining him in adding another club to his CV.
The Scottish Sun recently claimed that Premiership side Hearts have opened talks to sign the 35-year-old, who recently made a return to the Republic of Ireland’s international set-up. But is his potential move to Hearts a bit of a surprise?
When Dean Smith first arrived at Villa, many would have thought that a player like Whelan would not have been able to cope with the fast-paced and attack-minded nature in which he wanted to play in. But that wasn’t to be the case!
During the early part of Smith’s reign, he was still trying to find the right formula before injuries to a number of key players resulted in the team going through a seriously bad patch over the winter period.
But at the start of March, Smith finally found his best team, and with Whelan in the middle of the park, he played a quite brilliant anchor role in which John McGinn and Jack Grealish fed off.
Whilst Smith would, now and again, interchange between Whelan and Conor Hourihane, the experienced player produced some exceptional performances and played a huge part in Villa winning 10 games in a row.
Some would argue that towards the back end of the campaign, he produced some of his best form in many a year, therefore, it is a surprise that he might be moving to a club like Hearts.
Given how he performed for a forward-thinking Villa side, and the experience he has under his belt, some would have perhaps felt that playing in the Championship would have still been an option or him.
But it seems as though he might be now planning to ply his trade in Scotland, where Hearts will be trying to challenge for that third European spot.
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