It is time for Aston Villa to have a discussion about Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Most Villans will agree that it might be time for Agbonlahor to have a seriously reduced role for Villa.
It may even be time for the Erdington-born striker to find a new club, because he just cannot cut it at the moment.
His main attribute, and one of he main focal points of the Villa faithful’s affection for him is his incredible pace. Whilst it is obvious that he is not as far as he was in his younger years, he can still strike fear into the hearts of defenders. But nonetheless his pace has reduced, probably due to age and his muscle growth, which started in the Martin O’Neil era.
But having someone in your squad with terrifying pace can be very beneficial to a club. Although it becomes pretty redundant when the player in question cannot finish, which is what makes Agbonlahor both an exciting but incredibly frustrating player to watch.
More often than not the 28-year-old can find himself in positions that would make natural born finishers green with envy, yet Agbonlahor will somehow fail to find the back of the net on many occasions.
His goalscoring record is not abysmal and he is not played as a striker in every game he has played for Villa, often deployed out on the left. But Agbonlahor has failed to break double-figures in the Premier League for five years. The last time he did so was in the 2009-10 season, netting 13 goals in 36 appearances.
With 84 goals in 354 appearances for Villa, he has never really been known as a lethal striker, bar one particular game in 2008, when an Agbonlahor scored a perfect hat-trick to help Villa beat Manchester City 4-2. At the time, that performance made him the fastest hat-trick hero in Premier League history until Sado Mané netted three against Villa last season, relegating him to second.
But in recent years his impact has never looked like nearing the heights of that opening game in 2008, and against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park he was woeful with some fans commenting he was invisible and that Villa looked like they were playing with only 10 players on the pitch.
Last year he signed a four-year contract, so on paper he will be at the Villa until at least 2018. But will he still be playing in claret and blue by then? He has got a lot to prove and being a home-grown local, he is bound to have more leniency. But he will need to do more than just work hard, because if that is what Tim Sherwood is looking for in a striker he would not have let Andreas Weimann leave for Derby County.
And for many years one of the Agbonlor’s biggest criticisms was that he rarely looked bothered on the pitch, especially when he was fawned out onto the wing. Most people in Villa Park watching him would have been glad to just be on that pitch. His career is the personification of Villa fans’ dreams, the local boy on the pitch. But now the fans have a new local lad to live vicariously through: ‘super’ Jack Grealish.
Could it be time for ‘Gabby’ to leave Villa Park and one day return as a club ambassador? The honour of club captain certainly points in the direction.
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But for all his faults, there is one fixture that you can guarantee Agbonlahor will be up for: the Second City Derby. And what an opurtunity to ignite his Villa career than with a goal or two against Birmingham City next month, when the Championship side visits Villa Park in the third round of the League Cup.
If Gabby can conjure up a performance akin to the one in 2007, when he cleared a Liam Ridgwell header off the line only to race up the pitch minutes later to head in the winner, then all will be forgotten and he will become a Holte End Hero one again. But it seems that might not be what he envisions, after admitting he agrees with the fans’ criticisms on Instagram. Could it be the end?
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A week of shooting practice for Gabby Agbonlahore would make him club favorite once more!