Former Arsenal Academy graduate Henri Lansbury looked like a shrewd bit of business back in the January 2017 transfer window as we secured his signing from Nottingham Forest with a snip £2.75million fee.
The spell hasn’t exactly gone to plan for the now 28-year-old as injuries have significantly affected both his form and his game time, and to date, he only has 26 starting appearances to his name in our shirt, along with a further nine showings from the substitutes bench.
With his 2018/19 season hit again, we’ve only seen him on the pitch five times this year, but the showing against Norwich City on the final day of the regular Championship campaign did see him standout when it came to his performance – especially as head coach Dean Smith had chosen to rest key players.
With the club taking to social media to praise his showing on the day, it gained an interesting reaction from fans.
Fair to say we witnessed a more than impressive performance from this man on Sunday 👉 @LansburyHenri.#TuesdayThoughts #AVFC pic.twitter.com/kP5YyM9v11
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) May 7, 2019
Making Dean Smith's team selection on Saturday a lot more harder. But think Deano will go with Whelan to start with Hourihane and Lansbury on the bench.
— Jay Peers (@JayJPavfc) May 7, 2019
I thought he looked off the pace, defo needs more minutes to get up to scratch
— Tom Adams (@TomAdams1994) May 7, 2019
If only he could stay fit!!!
— Dave Jenkins. (@ishumacon) May 7, 2019
Good player but how are you meant to get into a team with McGinn, Grealish and Hourihane. They’re just performing week after week.
— Cial Northall (@Cial149) May 7, 2019
I thought Henri had a great game. Always looking to receive the ball and kept things moving. Who got MOTM? got to be Lansbury or Green?
— Rob (@Robdw1983) May 7, 2019
He could save Villa slot of money,
What do think of Lansbury and Cal O'Hare as the centre mids for next season if Villa fail promotion, as we know JG and McG will be hot targets— Mike Knott (@MikeKnott10) May 7, 2019
It was a decent showing, but the bar for Lansbury given what we’ve seen so far is pretty low in fairness. He’s a good option to have ahead of the coming Play-Off battle, but I don’t see how he’s given Smith a selection headache, certainly at least not yet.
