Aston Villa are enjoying a resurgence under Dean Smith having narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier League last season.

It's been their activity in the summer transfer window that has arguably spearheaded their change in fortunes with the likes of Ollie Watkins, Ross Barkley and Matty Cash all making an instant impact at Villa Park.

Therefore, it's time for manager Dean Smith to move on from some of the players that he's no longer calling upon and a good place to start would be among the higher-earners, namely Ahmed Elmohamady.

The versatile defender is sitting on a pay packet of around £45k-per-week in the Midlands yet he's only played 33 minutes in the Premier League all season, so clearly he's out-of-favour under the Villa boss.

Originally signed by Steve Bruce for just £1m in July 2017, the Egypt international has featured 118 times for the club and played an integral role on their way to promotion in 2018, starting 32 of 38 league matches where he provided seven assists.

However, that is all in the past and now at the age of 33, he has Cash ahead of him in the pecking order. The former Nottingham Forest man is currently out injured, so Frederic Guilbert may soon get the nod.

The veteran right-back has never averaged more than 1.1 tackles, 1.1 crosses or 0.4 dribbles per game for Villa, via WhoScored, meaning he really is starting to waste Nassef Sawiris' money.

Elmohamady has cost a little over £8m when you combine his transfer fee and wages over the course of his career in B6.

With his contract up in the summer, it would be wise to try and offload him during the January transfer window - any sort of return would be most welcome, but if there are no suitors, then he should absolutely be free to leave come the end of the season.

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