Lansbury’s situation seemed set to be one of the sagas of the January window before his move from Nottingham Forest to Championship rivals Aston Villa.
Aston Villa chief executive Keith Wyness has explained to the Birmingham Mail that the club had particular problems trying to get a deal done with Nottingham Forest for Henri Lansbury during the January transfer window.
Lansbury’s future seemed destined to be one of the main talking points in the Championship right through the window as he remained at the City Ground more than two weeks after the Villans made a bid during the first few days of the month (via Mail).
And while shedding light on how the deal played out, Wyness seemingly suggested that the move did not involve lots of back or forth between the two clubs, but was actually held up due to the speculation surrounding the Forest ownership which made Fawaz Al-Hasawi difficult to get hold of during the month.
“They were all very tricky this January actually, there was no straightforward deal,” he told the Mail.
Aston Villa’s Henri Lansbury
“Forest was very hard for Lansbury. There was a bit of absentee ownership from Fawaz at the time. He seemed to be unavailable to talk to us.”
Given the difficulties surrounding getting a deal across the line, the Villa hierarchy will be hoping that Lansbury’s performances for Steve Bruce justify the effort that was put in to get him through the door.
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce
So far, fans have only been treated to the odd glimpse of what the 26-year-old is truly capable of, while his most notable contribution in a Villa shirt came when he scored a calamitous own goal in the defeat to Newcastle last month.
With the prospect of promotion this season almost completely off the table – Bruce’s men are currently 15th, 16 points off the top six – Lansbury can arguably take some more time to adjust to life with his new club, but he will know that the pressure will be ramped up when they start again next season, especially now it has emerged just how hard Villa worked to sign him.
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