Gabriel Agbonlahor: Aston Villa’s struggles made it hard to leave the house

Posted Saturday, May 30, 2015 by theguardian.com

Forward has felt a tough period for the club more keenly than most but hopes FA Cup final will spark a turnaround in individual and collective fortunes

Gabriel Agbonlahor and Aston Villa have had a rocky few years since their 2-1 League Cup final defeat to Aston Villa in 2010.

More than five years have passed since Gabriel Agbonlahor last had the chance to win silverware at Wembley and it says everything about what happened that day that the Aston Villa striker sounds like a man who is about to return to the scene of a crime. Villa were beaten 2-1 by Manchester United in the 2010 League Cup final and a furious sense of injustice still burns inside him.

Under five minutes had gone when Agbonlahor was brought down by Nemanja Vidic in what looked like a clear professional foul. Phil Dowd, the referee, awarded a penalty and James Milner converted from the spot but Vidic somehow stayed on the pitch. United, almost inevitably, turned the game around and Villa, in more ways than one, never recovered.

“If you look back at that game we were cheated,” Agbonlahor says. “I think every Villa fan or every person who watched the game would agree it should have been a red card. If you give away a foul in the box … if it was the other way about our defender would have been sent off. That cost us the game.

“Martin O’Neill was seething and rightly so. I don’t think he’s forgiven [Dowd] yet, knowing Martin. The way we started that game, we were on top, got the penalty. If Vidic gets sent off and we score it’s a different game for Man United. They would have probably brought off one of their goalscorers who went on to score.”

The truth is little has gone right for Agbonlahor or Villa since. For the fifth successive season Villa have flirted with relegation while Agbonlahor has gone from being in and around the England setup under Fabio Capello to struggling to get a run-out as a centre-forward at club level.

From Villa’s point of view something has to change and Agbonlahor, who was born in Erdington, joined the club at the age of 14 and has made more than 350 appearances since making his debut under David O’Leary in 2006, hopes the FA Cup final against Arsenal can be the catalyst for a new era that lifts the doom and gloom.

“People don’t realise but as a Villa fan, it’s hard for me to take as well,” Agbonlahor says, reflecting on the last few years. “This season it’s been scary at times, the thought of a football club like this going down, good people losing their jobs – it’s not nice. As a club we need to start sorting that out in the summer and then get this club back to where they deserve to be. Hopefully this is a start. If everything is positive in the FA Cup final, then hopefully in pre-season we can bring in new players to help this club improve.”

It is a measure of how bleak things have been at Villa that Agbonlahor has not only feared relegation but been too ashamed to show his face on occasions. “There’s been times where you look [at the table] and think: ‘Fuck’,” Agbonlahor says. “It’s not a nice feeling at all. You don’t want to leave the house, you don’t want to go to a nightclub, you’re staying behind four walls until results pick up – but I think deservedly so. If you’re not performing and the club is in a relegation battle you’ve got to stay out of the public eye.”

It is perhaps no surprise that as Villa have struggled Agbonlahor’s career has stagnated. He signed a four-year contract in September, yet it seems a long time ago when O’Neill described him as a “priceless asset” in a Villa team who finished sixth in the Premier League three seasons running.

“You’ve got to be fair to myself and say since Martin I’ve been used in a number of positions,” Agbonlahor says. “I can’t use that as an excuse but I am a striker at the end of the day, not a left-winger. But since Martin left the majority of my games have been as a left-winger, which I’ve had to adapt to try and get a game.”

Agbonlahor shakes his head when asked whether he ever told Gérard Houllier, Alex McLeish or Paul Lambert he was not being picked in his best position. “You can’t do that. If you’re playing for a club like this you play anywhere to get in the side. I think if I’d said I’d only want to play as a striker I wouldn’t have played for five seasons. We’ve got big Christian [Benteke] coming in and doing well. You have to adapt. You might not like it. Look at the example of Jermain Defoe against Arsenal, he was playing left-back more or less. Sometimes in this day and age you have to play in different positions to get in the side.”

Agbonlahor won his last England cap in 2009 in a World Cup qualifier against Belarus and there is no doubt in his mind that being used as a square peg in a round hole at Villa has cost him the chance to play for his country again. “Definitely, but what can you do?” he says. “Football’s changed. When I started most teams played 4-4-2. Now it’s common to play 4-5-1, so if I didn’t play left-wing I wouldn’t get a game.”

The bottom line, though, is that Agbonlahor has always managed to convince the manager at the time he is worth persevering with and it has got to the stage where it is hard to imagine Villa starting a season without his name appearing on the back of the programme. He turns 29 later this year and will almost certainly end up as a one-club man.

“It’s not always greener on the other side,” he says. “It’s a credit to Steven Gerrard, as he said he had chances to leave but didn’t because he is Liverpool through and through. That’s what I feel about this club. I couldn’t see myself with another Premier League strip on, I don’t think that would ever happen.”

Sherwood has recognised the value of deploying Agbonlahor through the middle when he has picked him but the club’s longest-serving player may have to be content with being on the bench at Wembley. Benteke will lead the line and Sherwood is sure to find a place in the team for Jack Grealish, the exciting 19-year-old academy graduate who is following in Agbonlahor’s footsteps.

“He is the best player I’ve ever trained with,” Agbonlahor says. “His quality is crazy. He could play in any team in the Premier League, he is that good. It’s a credit to Villa to get him signed up and keep hold of him. The way he has been training and playing, he will be one of Villa’s best players for years to come. He reminds me of Iniesta, the way he side-steps players so easily. It looks effortless for him.”

Grealish was outstanding in the semi-final against Liverpool – a match that Agbonlahor missed with a hamstring injury – and Villa will be hoping the teenager can produce more of the same on what could be Randy Lerner’s last game as the club’s owner.

Agbonlahor has a lot of respect for Lerner and praises the American for his considerable investment over the years but had something else in mind when it was suggested to him that winning the FA Cup would be the perfect send-off for the billionaire. “The biggest thing is for the fans,” Agbonlahor says. “It’s been five years of hurt really for them, going through a relegation battle every season, so if we can win this for them it will be something to be happy about.”