It's been a tough few months for Aston Villa in the Championship and their supporters are hoping for a better campaign under Steve Bruce next time out.

But as we saw last season, the second-tier is growing stronger by the year and we've seen some big clubs return to the division following their promotions from League One.

Villa have certainly got the quality in their ranks to do well during the 2017/18 season but it's a matter of bringing it all together to build a squad that has enough quality to make a serious push for promotion, rather than the poor effort we saw during this campaign.

And there's one man we at the FLW think has to play a massive part in the coming months and that's former Barnsley midfielder Conor Hourihane.

The £1.7million-rated playmaker didn't show much at all during the second half of the campaign and after showing some serious promise during his time at Oakwell, some Villa fans have been slightly let down by what they've seen- and rightly so too.

The fact of the matter is this. Villa are going to be seriously backed financially for years to come and the 26-year-old won't last long if he doesn't step up his game sooner rather than later. When he's at his creative best, he's absolutely devastating.

But if he doesn't start getting into games more during the 90 minutes, he's going to get left behind and forgotten rather quickly indeed.

He needs to step up or risk being sold this time next year.

Villa fans- what does Hourihane have to do to impress over the coming months? Leave your thoughts down below!