After taking over from Roberto Di Matteo in the second half of the 2016/17 campaign, Steve Bruce was looking to make his Aston Villa team his own ahead of a play-off push in the 2017/18 campaign.

The former Manchester United man had already made a huge statement of intent after signing Chelsea legend John Terry on a free transfer, with the West Midlands club looking to return to the top flight after a bitterly disappointing campaign last time around.

Here, we take a look at when Villa completed the signing of Hull City right-back Ahmed Elmohamady, for a reported fee of £1million in the summer of 2017...

On paper, this looked to be a shrewd signing from Villa. Elmohamady was a player that Bruce knew well from his time at Sunderland, and the Egyptian was also part of Bruce's Hull side that won promotion to the Premier League in 2012/13 and 2015/16.

Initially, Villa fans shared the same thoughts, and were delighted with the signing.

But this delight and positivity turned out to be short-lived - the Villans fell at the final hurdle in their hunt for promotion to the top flight last term after losing to Fulham in the play-off final, and the signing has gone downhill from that moment onwards.

Since the departure of Steve Bruce, Elmohamady has been a bit-part player under Dean Smith in recent weeks, and was handed a start on the wing against West Brom at the weekend, a decision that really didn't pay off.

The 31-year old will know that he is running out of time at Villa Park with his contract expiring next year, and it will be interesting to see if Villa choose to sell him in the summer instead of letting him leave on a free transfer.