Gabby Agbonlahor EXCLUSIVE: Former Aston Villa star on 2016 relegation, Di Matteo’s ‘bad ego’ and ‘terrible’ Tony Xia
Aston Villa’s relegation from the Premier League in 2016 hurt no one more than Gabby Agbonlahor.
Villa are, of course, Agbonlahor’s boyhood club and much like the team’s current captain, Jack Grealish, he knew what it meant to wear the famous claret and blue having come through the academy at Villa Park.
Despite never quite fulfilling his early promise, which led to him earning three England caps, Agbonlahor endeared himself to Villa fans not just for his goals against arch-rivals Birmingham, but for his loyalty as well, staying through the difficult times when others were quick to leave.
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Even after leaving Villa when his contract expired in 2018, he didn’t join another club and ended up retiring from professional football last year.
The final few years for Agbonlahor, though, were up there with the toughest of his career.
During Villa’s relegation season, the striker was hit with accusations concerning his fitness and private life, which ultimately had a detrimental effect on his mental health.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT about the relegation, Agbonlahor said: “It affected me a lot. I was sort of in a depression mode.
“Players will treat it [relegation] differently. Some players might have seen it that they would get a move.
“Other players, like myself, who were born and bred there – we were distraught to go down.
“I dealt with it in a different way than maybe I should have dealt with it at the time.
“Deep down I was devastated and I showed it in a way that wasn’t great after relegation. I was that depressed from the relegation and the season we had gone through.
“That season, I remember I had three stories in the papers for three days in a row. People don’t realise what the media can do to people.
“At that time, I remember waking up to 100 messages from family and friends of pictures of the paper and me on the front page [with stories] on my private life and ex-girlfriends and other stuff.
“I was going into training and the manager would come over to me and say, ‘are you okay?’, and because of how I was brought up, I wasn’t going to tell them I wasn’t okay.
“I didn’t go out and speak to people, I kept it inside and rebelled in other ways. It was a stressful season on and off the pitch for me.”
The summer following relegation proved to be one of change off the pitch at Villa Park.
A new man was in charge with Dr Tony Xia purchasing the club from previous owner Randy Lerner, and the Chinese businessman quickly installed Roberto Di Matteo as manager.
Villa went on a spending spree that summer as they desperately tried to put together a squad capable of earning an immediate return to the Premier League.
In truth, things ended up going from bad to worse.
Di Matteo lasted just 124 days at the helm, being sacked after winning only one league game, and Steve Bruce was swiftly appointed in a bid to salvage Villa’s season.
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“They ended up finishing 13th that campaign and wouldn’t return to the top-flight for another two years, sealing promotion last season by beating Derby in the play-off final.
If Di Matteo had remained at Villa Park longer, Agbonlahor’s future with his hometown team may have been called into question a lot sooner.
“I was on a fitness regime all through the summer,” he continued. “I got over the depression I was under that season in the summer and I said to myself, ‘I’m part of the reason Aston Villa got relegated, so I’m going to get myself fit to the way I should have been’.
“I was getting myself fit and I was flying in pre-season. I remember the day before the first game of the season, Di Matteo called me in and said, ‘I want you to leave’.
“I said to him: ‘What are you talking about?’ I thought he was calling me in to tell me the tactics for the game.
“He told me to go and I said: ‘no chance’. The owner called me in and said they wanted me to go to Rangers or Reading, and I replied: ‘I’m not going anywhere. I was part of the team that went down and I want to stay here and help the team come back up’.
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“They said no and I was like, ‘I’ll see the manager out.’ That was my attitude at the time and I did see him out.
“That owner was terrible to be honest. He was like an agent. He was tweeting left, right and centre and I think he was just enjoying the role and not really caring about the club.
“Di Matteo, because he had worked wonders with a great Chelsea team, when he got the job he sort of had a bad ego and was quite arrogant.
“Players didn’t really get on with him either and that showed in the results Villa had that season until he was sacked. It was a bit of a crazy time to be at the club and Steve Bruce came in and brought normality.”
Aston Villa take on Man City in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, and you can listen to full commentary of the match LIVE on talkSPORT!
February 29, 2020 at 03:00PM Premier League Football Fixtures and Results - talkSPORT https://talksport.com
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