Reuniting with Brendan Rodgers at Celtic, Scott Sinclair is back to his best at last – just a shame he couldn’t find form at Aston Villa.
The cynics may argue that a number of the teams currently making up the Scottish Premiership would struggle if forced to try their hand at the second tier of English football.
Yet, that should not take away from Scott Sinclair’s most impressive individual campaign since the 2011/12 Premier League campaign with Swansea that earned him that ill-fated move to Manchester City.
With 21 goals in 31 league games at the time of writing, Sinclair is enjoying the most prolific season of his career. As such, he has earned the rather impressive duo of league winner’s medal and golden boot award in his debut campaign in Scotland.
If only Aston Villa could have benefitted from such influential attacking displays. Yet, Sinclair contributed just nine goals in 45 games in a season and a half in the Midlands, departing after their humiliating relegation from the top flight last summer.
The fact that Villa earned just £3 million from his move to Celtic, meanwhile, shows just how far his reputation have plummeted, as reported by The Guardian. And the fact he has probably tripled his valuation after just one season in Glasgow shows just what a magnificent job Brendan Rodgers has done reviving his former Swansea City talisman.
Ironically, however, Villa could use a player like Sinclair right now. Well, a Sinclair in form anyway. Villa look set to finish in the top half of the Championship, albeit with a far inferior goalscoring record to the eleven teams above them.
Their timid 1-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers last Saturday had manager Steve Bruce fuming but their bluntness in attack was arguably as concerning as their penchant for individual defensive errors.
And Sinclair has one attribute sorely lacking in Villa’s squad; the ability to conjure something out of nothing.
Few supporters were disappointed when he left but, as he continues to star in Celtic colours, Villa’s inability to get the best out of Sinclair feels like a missed opportunity.
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