Aston Villa have made a conscious effort in recent years to take the next step up to challenge the ‘big-six’.

Pumping both their own money and that earned from the £100m Jack Grealish sale, the hierarchy have backed both Dean Smith and Steven Gerrard to make their own key additions in an attempt of reaching that goal.

The former lost his job due to a lack of progress, but not before he unloaded £38m to sign Emiliano Buendia from Norwich City.

Coming off the back of winning Championship Player of the Year, having scored 15 and assisted 17, many expected him to translate this into Premier League success.

The Argentine has since struggled at Villa Park to acclimatise, with consistency hard to come by despite his consistently workmanlike performances.

Whilst it is pleasing to see his effort levels maintained, for a club record fee one would hope for a higher output of goals and assists.

Having featured 47 times now for the Villans, he has only scored five times and assisted a further seven.

It could be argued that his progress has been somewhat halted by the new manager Gerrard, who still seems unsure of what his best formation is and where the 25-year-old might fit into it.

Not only this, but the permanent addition of Philippe Coutinho has also seen his position within the squad further scrutinised.

BirminghamLive journalist Ashley Preece agrees, whilst suggesting he might be unhappy with how he is yet to receive a solid run of games under the new regime: “I think he will be frustrated, yes. I think he’ll want to play every game.

“He’s a club-record buy for Villa, they forked out a lot of money for Buendia, and he's been knocked down the pecking order by Coutinho ever since his arrival. So, he'll be frustrated, but he’ll be determined to get back in this team and keep his shirt.”

However, fans too will be frustrated that he is yet to show what everyone knows he can.

These underwhelming performances, marking a sensational drop-off from that one outstanding season, have unsurprisingly seen his value plummet too.

CIES Football Observatory now only rate him at €25m (21.8m), noting a 48% and £16.2m decrease in just one year.

Although it is still early, many would consider this transfer a failure already, unless Gerrard can find a system that works and force consistent performances out of Buendia at last.