Aston Villa have endured quite a tumultuous decade, having suffered relegation and promotion as well as the loss of some important players.

In a season where Leicester City rightfully stole the headlines for their impossible title win, the 2015/16 Premier League campaign also saw a bastion of English football in the Villans finish rock-bottom.

This disappointment obviously led to them losing some key players, but arguably none more important than Idrissa Gana Gueye.

The Senegalese star featured 35 times throughout that fateful season, and was a shining light across an otherwise bleak year for fans at Villa Park.

Everton unsurprisingly swooped for his services and acquired him for a fee of just £7.1m.

They would sell him just three years later to Paris Saint-Germain for £30m.

At Goodison Park, however, he truly began to gain recognition for his relentless midfield performances.

In his debut season on Merseyside, he earned an average SofaScore rating of 7.25 whilst averaging a mammoth 4.1 tackles and 2.5 interceptions per game.

There was even a period where he recorded more tackles than N'Golo Kante.

He became an integral cog for the Toffees and has since been lauded a “hero” by journalist Greg O’Keeffe.

Having now returned from his stint in Paris, where he won two Ligue 1 titles and played alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar, despite his age he continues to perform.

The 33-year-old has only featured four times since re-signing for Everton, which coincided with their first two wins of the season and a fine draw against Liverpool.

Every passing season where his quality does not drop is another season that Villa can feel aggrieved that they let him go for so cheap.

Whilst in the French capital, teammate Presnel Kimpembe labelled him a “monster” who everyone held immense pride for.

It is his humility combined with his unrelenting hard work that has endeared him to the Evertonians so much, and given how Villa seem to be going through something of an identity crisis in midfield now, it makes his continued form even more frustrating.

Relegation can be devastating for any football club, but to lose a player of this quality for such a fraction of what he was worth must have hurt more than most.

They had a shocker with this transfer decision, given how established across world football he now is.