The striker has been told to find a new club by Roberto di Matteo but turned down the chance of a Championship loan deal.
Exiled Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has turned down the opportunity to join fellow Championship club Reading on loan on transfer deadline day, according to the Birmingham Mail.
Agbonlahor is Villa’s record Premier League goalscorer but has been frozen out of the picture by Roberto di Matteo after being plagued by fitness and reported attitude problems last season.
The striker, who turns 30 in six weeks’ time, scored just once in 18 appearances last season in all competitions and has not played for the club since March.
He appears to have no future with the club, but Villa have been unsuccessful in their attempts to find an interested suitor after the forward’s pronounced decline in form in recent years.
It briefly appeared as though they may have found a solution with Reading expressing an interest in bringing Agbonlahor to the Madejski Stadium on loan.
However, the Birmingham Mail reports that Agbonlahor declined the chance to make the move and is now likely to see out the remaining year of his contract at Villa Park.
Agbonlahor is behind Rudy Gestede, Jordan Ayew, Libor Kozak, and summer signings Ross McCormack and Jonathan Kodjia in the attacking pecking order.
At this stage he looks unlikely to play a single competitive minute for his boyhood club this season, but will remain on the books due to Villa’s failure to shift him out this summer.
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