‘It’s best to move on’: Manager sends brutally honest message to £12m Aston Villa man

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Scott Hogan has had a torrid time since his big-money move to Aston Villa three years ago.

It has been three years to forget for Aston Villa’s Scott Hogan, who simply cannot find a way to get back to the form that earned him a move to the Midlands giants in 2017.

The 27-year-old is currently on a season-long loan at Stoke City, but judging by his manager’s comments, Michael O’Neill, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he makes an early return.

The Northern Irishman has claimed in a brutally honest manner that it’s best for Hogan to ‘move on’ from Stoke given his lack of game time, as he also claimed that the struggling striker is aware of the situation.

Hogan moved to Stoke in the summer following Villa’s promotion to the Premier League and he was snapped up by Nathan Jones, who was sacked by the Staffordshire club in November and replaced by O’Neill.

Since O’Neill’s arrival, he has taken the club from rock-bottom of the Championship table to seven points from safety, as Hogan has hardly played a part. This is what O’Neill had to say about his players who could leave this month:

“We had situations with players – and two, in particular, Mark Duffy and Scott Hogan, who are here on loan,” O’Neill told the Stoke Sentinal. “They haven’t played much under me.

“Scott’s had a little bit. Mark hasn’t been involved at all. For their own interests, it’s best to move on and I think they know that.”

Hogan moved to Villa Park during the January transfer window of 2017 for a fee in the region of £12 million [BBC Sport], as he was one of a number of high-profile Championship signings by Villa and then boss Steve Bruce.

Unfortunately for Hogan, he never really hit it off in his first few months. Then injuries and a lack of game time kept piling up on another. And then he was then well and truly out of Villa’s picture by the time his one-year anniversary at the club had arrived.

Even with his former Brentford boss, Dean Smith, arriving on the scene in B6, even he couldn’t get Hogan back to his best and has since sent him out on-loan twice.

Whilst Hogan is a very honest player, who puts the team first, his recent decision-making has proved to be costly and amid talk that he could be leaving Stoke, his next move needs to be the right one for the sake of his long-term future.