Yahoo News The 'elegant' Aston Villa player who never played a single minute
Aston Villa's summer of 2015 promised much. There was a feel of a changing of the guard in the Bodymoor Heath dressing room, one that was much needed and which had been largely prompted by the club's scrape with relegation the season before. It was also an opportunity presented to the Villa decision makers because so many players were out of contract.
A number of Paul Lambert's infamous Bomb Squad departed, including Shay Given and Darren Bent. The trolley dash around Europe hadn't bore fruit, and ties were severed with the likes of Antonio Luna, Nicklas Helenius, Aleksandar Tonev and Yacouba Sylla. Replacing Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke, the captain and the leading goalscorer who had been largely responsible for the club's survival and FA Cup run, however would be an unenviable task.
The irony of Villa's thinking that summer when it came to their recruitment was that Hendrik Almstadt and Paddy Riley were onto something with their approach to signings. Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Veretout, Adama Traore and Jordan Ayew have all gone on to have decent careers in England and abroad. Clearly, though, that summer risks were taken on foreign potential and experienced English heads in Scott Sinclair, Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards.
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The bulk of Villa's business was spent on permanent signings, rather surprisingly, at a time when Villa supporters might've feared that disconnected Randy Lerner could've pocketed the proceeds raised by the sales of Delph and Benteke. Tim Sherwood, who was the injection of adrenaline the club desperately needed to jolt themselves to safety the season previous, oversaw a serious overhaul in personnel. Only one player arrived on a loan basis.
Even that arrangement with Liverpool for the services of Tiago Ilori could've ended up being on a long-term basis had things played out differently. Ilori, whose mother is Portuguese and who grew up in the Algarve, was actually born in London and signed for Liverpool in 2013. He'd not kicked a competitive ball in the Reds' first-team before all parties agreed to the Villa loan, so even then it could have been predicted that it would go one of two ways.
There was an element of pressure on defender Ilori. Brendan Rodgers sung his praises. Sherwood unashamedly outlined what he expected from him and what he could develop into. This was all before he'd played even a single Premier League minute - and, remarkably, he never got to, for Villa, Liverpool or anyone else. Ilori played in the PL2 for Villa, in the Championship (and even in the play-off final) for Reading, but that was as close as he came.
When Liverpool completed the move for Ilori, from Sporting Lisbon, in 2013, Rodgers tipped him to become a mainstay in the Anfield back-line for years to come, long after the likes of Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and co had departed.
"I wanted to try and protect the present and the future of the club," he said. "Good centre-halves are so hard to find. We had been tracking Tiago Ilori for a year, a young talent who can be a big talent. He is 6ft 3in, super quick, powerful, can jump. He just needs to adapt to the pace and physicality of the Premier League. He is one for the future but he can be a really big talent."
Two years later, and Ilori hadn't had any first-team football in England. Loans in Spain and France with Granada and Bordeaux followed, but Ilori was shipped out again - this time with the plan to break into a Premier League side and return to Merseyside a rounded centre half who had displayed signs of the talent which many appeared to have spotted in him throughout his formative footballing years.
Sherwood, who remained unapologetically honest, emphasised what he saw in Ilori. “If he becomes what I think he can be, he’s a good buy at the money we’re talking about,” he said. Villa, as mentioned, had been granted the option to sign the centre half for a fixed fee if he suitably impressed.
“He’s quick and elegant," Sherwood continued. "He’s played in four different countries, when you include England. He’s had a good rounded development. He’s very composed on the ball and versatile. He can play right-back, centre-back and I see him playing holding midfield as well. “He’s a development project and someone I am very excited to work with. I think he could be an exceptional player. He’s not there yet, but he’s in the right place.”
Villa paid £1m to Liverpool to borrow Ilori, and he could've cost them £6m had he actually played regularly and impressed enough that the Villa hierarchy sanctioned a permanent arrangement. Instead, within the same season, Ilori was farmed back to Anfield, where - under new manager Jurgen Klopp - he made his Reds debut, at Exeter City, in the FA Cup a matter of days after marking his return.
In a defining transfer window - for all the wrong reasons - we'll never know if Ilori might've been a success or a failure along with many others who walked through the door that summer, because the closest he ever came to being involved in a claret and blue shirt was when he warmed the bench for a single top flight game in a draw with Southampton under Remi Garde. It's safe to say, though, that Villa have come a long, long way in under a decade.
