Aston Villa had narrowly escaped relegation to the Championship at the end of the 2014/15 season before a rebuilding job was started in earnest.

Tim Sherwood was appointed to steer the club away from a Premier League exit, and he did so ahead of the 2015/16 season.

Recruits were needed in the hope that Villa would need not worry anymore about a relegation dogfight ahead of what was expected to be a much improved season.

And player recruitment would dictate that the direction the club were going in was hopefully the right one.

A signing was made that would capture the imagination of plenty of the club’s fans.

On August 14, 2015, Sherwood had snapped up a promising young attacker from Barcelona.

Adama Traore moved to the Premier League on a five-year deal from the Spanish giants for a fee in the region of £7million.

Along with the transfer fee, the Catalan club had a three-year buy-back clause inserted into the agreement.

The excitement from the Villa faithful around this addition was all too real.

He made his Premier League debut for the Villans in the 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on August 22, 2015, where he got an assist off a Pape Souare own-goal.

Traore would score his first goal for the club in the 5-3 League Cup win over Notts County three days later in what was an impressive couple of outings for the former Barcelona man.

Nine more appearances that term would give him a total of 11 games played for his new side in a season that saw Villa finish bottom of the league and relegated to the Championship.

And that would be it for his time at Villa Park.

He had pace in abundance, but his performances would flatter to deceive at times with Traore offering little else in other areas of the pitch and different aspects of his game.

After just one year into a five-year deal, he would leave the club on August 31, 2016, in favour of a move to Middlesbrough under fellow Spaniard Aitor Karanka

And the Villa fans were none too sympathetic with the departure of an expensive player after his one season with the club.

Since leaving Villa Traore had an indifferent debut season at the Riverside before five goals in 40 appearances during the 2017/18 campaign made him one of the club’s standout players in their play-off final season.

He has since moved back to the Premier League with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The initial reaction to Traore’s arrival was one of excitement at the calibre of player they had acquired from one of the biggest clubs in the world.

But what they got was an unpolished, unfinished player who was rough around the edges.

And other than his explosive pace, struggled to impose himself in other aspects which resulted in his departure just a year later.

Something that the many of the club’s supporters were none too bothered about.Â