Aston Villa have a proud history of developing players, even if we haven’t always seen the best of them ourselves down at Villa Park, as we moved them on and watched them impress elsewhere and former Academy graduate Callum Robinson certainly falls into that bracket.
The now 24-year-old Republic of Ireland international did make five substitute showings for the club back during the time of Paul Lambert, but the Scottish manager simply didn’t fancy him. He did slowly and surely impress during spells out on loan with Preston North End and Bristol City though and when Lambert made the decision to let him go, plenty of fans weren’t quite happy about it.
Our concerns of ‘giving him away’ were arguably proven as he made a real breakthrough back at Preston on a permanent basis and on Friday he left them, having scored 31 times in 92 starts (25 substitute showings), and completed a reported £7million rising to £10million switch to fellow Premier League promoted side Sheffield United.
He left the club as a free agent, but unlike the Marc Albrighton nonsense, we did offer a new deal, which he rejected, so training compensation did come into play and the Lancashire Evening Post claim we received £170,000 for him and did have a sell on clause – which frankly amazes me given how we were run at the point.
Updated this – website has a few gremlins in, apologies. Fee in the region of £8m I believe, not the £6m doing the rounds, Villa have a sell-on as you would expect.
— Dave Seddon (@Sedds_lep) July 11, 2019
I’m sure most will applaud Robinson’s development and nobody will begrudge him a successful season, apart from two games across the year, but plenty will again question the lack of forethought at the club in previous years – I can only presume training compensation includes a small automatic % sell on, as it would be the first time I’ve heard of this happening. Hopefully, those days are long behind us now!
Good player
— peter luckhurst (@peterluckhurst) July 11, 2019
Oh no, I hope he doesn't come back to haunt us next season. Preston have done well, signed him on a free and sell him for £8m!
Always liked and kept an eye on Callum. ????????— MrShafMan (@MrShafMan) July 11, 2019
Should definitely have gone for him and we would of saved money aswell
— Josh Donaghey (@JoshDonagheyAV) July 11, 2019
Thought it was Norwich he was going to? I always thought he was one that got away, looked really quick and in hindsight, would have been a much better player to keep around than buying Hogan etc
— Gregg Lowrie (@Deotron) July 11, 2019
Callum Robinson to the premier league and we let him go for free, nice!!!!!! #AVFC ???? https://t.co/IGnuuFDlQf
— I’m Hard 4 Aston Villa (@Hard4AstonVilla) July 11, 2019
Preston accept a bid from an unknown premier league club (norwich most likely) for Callum Robinson. Wish Aston Villa held on to him back in the day, was always going to be a great player #avfc
— Ciaran Corbett (@ciaran1991) July 11, 2019
Never should have let him go
Sheffield United?
— Matt Collins (@BullocksBig) July 11, 2019
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