Yacouba Sylla makes surprising Aston Villa admission; though feeling won’t be mutual

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Yacouba Sylla is currently fighting for Ligue 1 survival with Montpellier after failing to make the grade at Aston Villa.

Aston Villa fans will be pining for their Premier League heyday after one season consigned to the second tier. They will look back on the days of John Carew, Martin Laursen and James Milner with pride and nostalgia. They’ll even miss Martin O’Neill’s dour press conferences.

However, it’s fair to say few Villa fans will not be daydreaming of a day where Yacouba Sylla makes a triumphant return to the Midlands. If anything, the 2013 January signing summed up the inadequate recruitment that contributed heavily to the club’s steady decline, So Foot reports.

Former Clermont Foot youngster Sylla made just 22 top flight appearances in Villa colours before being farmed out to Turkish outfit Kayseri Erciyesspor on loan. Now back in his homeland with Montpellier on a loan deal from Rennes, however, he is surprisingly wistful about his forgettable stint in English football.

“The second season at Aston Villa, I only played a dozen games,” Sylla told So Foot.

“I saw players of my age evolving in Ligue 1 and I was panicking, telling myself that I was going to be slowed in my progression, because I did not play much. I was mistaken.

“[Leaving] is one of the greatest regrets of my career, of being so impatient and listening to the bad people.”

Nonetheless, Sylla has done little in the two years since departing Villa Park to suggest that the club should have done more to retain him. He failed to make the grade in England and, in truth, has hardly set the world alight in France either.

Furthermore, with Villa reinforcing their ranks with dynamic, forward thinking midfielders like Henri Lansbury and Conor Hourihane, it seems that they are on the up again with a renewed and improved transfer policy.

Sylla, like Niklas Helenius, Antonio Luna and Jose Angel Crespo, is a posterboy for Villa’s decline. So, while he may miss the club, the feeling will be far from mutual.