With the January transfer window upon Aston Villa, Steve Bruce will have undoubtedly been looking to get his feet right under the table at Villa Park and properly start to reassemble his squad ahead of the second-half of the campaign.

The Villans had made an impressive start to life under the former Manchester United man, losing just two out of 13 league games since taking the reins from Roberto Di Matteo.

With Villa sitting just outside the play-off places, changes had to be made in the transfer window, and Bruce will have known that he had to shift players out before he could think of bringing in his own.

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There were still plenty of players on the club's books that had played their parts in relegation from the Premier League the previous year, and the first player to leave in January was Rudy Gestede, who signed for top-flight side Middlesbrough.

This was a departure that Villa fans loved to see. Gestede had been nothing more than a flop since his £6million move from Blackburn the previous year, and left Villa Park having scored just 10 goals in 55 games for the West Midlands club.

A proven goalscorer in the Championship, Gestede failed to make any sort of impact with Villa in the Premier League, so plenty of fans were baffled when the Benin international secured yet another move to the top-flight.

Villa fans certainly won't be losing sleep about selling Gestede anytime soon - he has hardly gone on to set the world alight for Boro.

For the remainder of the 2016-17 campaign, the striker scored just two goals in 19 games for the North East club, with only one of those coming in the Premier League.

He then became a bit-part player under Garry Monk following the arrival of Britt Assombalonga, scoring just four goals in 22 games last term, and his career has stagnated ever since.

The 30-year old is surely destined for a move away from the Riverside Stadium in the summer, having made just eight appearances for Tony Pulis' men this season, failing to find the back of the net.