You Played Your Part - Good Luck For The Future Conor

Following on from all the speculation linking Republic of Ireland midfielder Conor Hourihane with a loan move to Championship side Swansea City, tonight that has come to pass.

Good luck at Swansea, @ConorHourihane! 👊

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 20, 2021

With most eyes on our Premier League encounter with Manchester City, plenty had noticed the 29-year-old hadn’t even made the bench, so an announcement was imminent and a short time ago the club posted the above Tweet to wish him farewell.

Hourihane certainly split fans in terms of his overall play, but his contribution to our successful push for promotion the other year – particularly his set pieces and goals as we then achieved survival – means he does leave with all of our thanks and our respect for his part in that.

Some of the criticism was overly harsh for me, but he proved people wrong.

𝟮𝟮 goals and 𝟮𝟵 assists in 𝟭𝟱𝟬 Aston Villa appearances. 🎯

Wishing @ConorHourihane all the best for the rest of the season! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/joJ3sa8C59

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 20, 2021

It should also be noted, head coach Dean Smith was perfectly happy to see him stay, so his own desire for regular games is to be applauded here as well.

“Conor is never happy when he’s not playing and we have respected his desire to go on loan to Swansea to play football games and to help them in their push for promotion. It’s a loan until the end of the season which gets him back in the heart of a promotion chase and playing regular football.”

Vital Villa’s Conor Hourihane Forum Thread

Whilst it’s only a loan deal until the end of the season, it’s the perfect chance for him to put himself back in the shop window and he could play a pivotal part in Swansea’s own promotion bid now, and plenty will be backing him to pick up another winners medal come the end of the season.

Good luck and best wishes Conor.

Plenty of fans were understandably sad to see him go.