Aston Villa broke the bank in January to land Brentford in-form striker Scott Hogan in a multi-million pound deal, with much expected of the former Rochdale man upon his arrival at Villa Park.

Almost a year down the line, it is obvious to all that Hogan’s move to the West Midlands has simply just not worked out, and Brentford boss Dean Smith will be delighted with the astronomical fee his side were able to recoup for the striker’s services.

The 25-year-old has scored just once in twenty five league appearances for the former Premier League regulars, and even in the absence of star striker Jonathan Kodjia, Hogan failed to take his chances.

Manager Steve Bruce will be extremely disappointed with the way the transfer has panned out, and if he decides to offload Hogan in the near future, he will have to take a huge loss on the player.

Hogan fought back well from multiple knee injuries to become prolific for the Bees, and at the time, the deal seemed like the right move for Villa.

However Bruce will have his regrets, and may wish that he had instead turned to £4.5 million rated Norwich City striker Nelson Oliveira, who has a wonderful record at this level.

Injuries have restricted the Portuguese this season, yet the forward still has five goals to his name at a rate of a goal every 89 minutes, and it is clear when fit that the player is certainly too good for this level.

The fee Bruce parted with for Hogan would surely have been enough to secure his services at the time, but in fairness to Bruce, Oliveira had only been with the Canaries since the previous summer, so a deal would have been difficult to pull off.

However a big money offer could have been enough to convince then boss Alex Neil to sell, and Bruce may harbour some regrets over the whole saga in hindsight.

Villa fans, who do you wish you had signed instead of Hogan? Have your say below...