Player #824 for Aston Villa, Andreas Weimann played as a forward for the club between 2010-11 and 2014-15 making 129 appearances and scoring 24 goals.

Andreas was born in Vienna on 5 August 1991 and joined Villa under Martin O’Neill from SK Rapid Wien’s youth set up in July 2007.

Weimann would have to wait until after O’Neill’s departure on the eve of the 2010-11 season before making his debut appearance under caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald in Villa’s opening day 3-0 Premier League win over West Ham United as an 86’ substitute for Ashley Young.

Weimann would follow his debut with a second consecutive substitute appearance, this time in the UEFA Europa League tie ironically against is former club SK Rapid Wien on Thursday, 19 August 2010.

Coming on as a 79’ substitute for Marc Albrighton, Weimann suffered serious injury just 7 minutes later and was ruled out for five months ahead of a rehabilitation loan move to Watford.

Weimann had ruptured “pretty much every ligament” in his ankle, needed surgery and didn’t kick a ball competitively again for Villa for another 369 days.

Indeed over that extended period Villa had seen caretakers Kevin MacDonald and Gary McAllister as well as permanent boss Gérard Houllier come and go and it would be Alex McLeish - Villa’s 5th ‘boss’ since Weimann’s arrival - who would next give him a first team opportunity.

That opportunity came in the League Cup on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 as a 72’ substitute for Darren Bent as Villa struggled to overcome lower league Hereford United.

Almost immediately thereafter McLeish sent Weimann out on loan once again to Watford before returning to the club and being named in the Premier League squad for Villa’s visit to Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, 25 September 2011.

Weimann would make consecutive substitute appearances before flitting in and out of the squad.

It wouldn’t be until mid December 2011 that Weimann would earn a semi permanent place in McLeish’s struggling squad however appearances would prove hard to come by - 5 as a substitute in 16 games - before a first start of the season on Saturday, 31 March 2012 as Villa fell 2-4 to Chelsea at Villa Park.

By that time Weimann had scored his first goal for the club as a 65’ substitute for Emile Heskey on Saturday, 10 March 2012 - a 93’ winner against Fulham, ‘forcing’ the ball over the line at the Holte End to earn Villa their only win in the final 16 games of the 2011-12 Premier League campaign.

Weimann recalled “I headed it and it bounced back and I tried everything not to touch it with my hand.”

“I can’t describe the feeling. To get your first goal in the last minute, for it to be the winner and for it to be such an important result was brilliant.”

Weimann would score his second and final goal of the campaign on Monday, 9 April 2012 to earn a draw against Stoke City, and would make four consecutive starts for the first time in his fledgling career.

Paul Lambert succeeded Alex McLeish for the 2012-13 season and the new Villa boss extracted Weimann’s strongest season from the youngster in a departure from his effect elsewhere on a thoroughly demoralised Villa squad.

Playing no small part in Weimann’s emergence was the inspired signing of 21 year old Belgian Christian Benteke who together with the Austrian Weimann struck up an impressive partnership hitting 23 and 12 goals respectively.

Weimann recollected “There’s no denying that that was my best time of my career at Villa. There was me, Gabby and Christian who played up front and we just clicked and had a great time together.”

“Christian was unbelievable in his first season, holding the ball up, scoring goals out of nowhere.”

“We had Gabby who that first season was brilliant with his pace and getting at people.”

“I was on the other side just trying to work hard to get into the box next to Christian and work off his knockdowns. He was the best striker I’ve ever played with.”

Weimann would hit a brace in defeat to Manchester United, another brace to vanquish Norwich, the crucial second in a 3-1 win at Anfield, earned a draw against Swansea before hitting the winner against Ipswich.

That period proved Weimann’s best goalscoring period in a Villa shirt but although there were other highlights it ultimately proved a false dawn for the player.

Three goals in the next 16 appearances to the season end took some wind out of his promise ahead of the 2013-14 campaign.

39 appearances including 33 starts in 2013-14 delivered just 6 goals although one was an iconic 75’ winner against a dominant Manchester City side in the 3-2 victory at Villa Park.

That goal sparked a picture that epitomised the joy of scoring at the Holte End. Weimann reflected “It’s a surreal feeling. What’s so good about it is you can see the expressions of all the fans.”

“You see me from behind and you see how much it means to them. When you stand there, look at the crowd and see thousands of fans all going crazy in the Holte End there’s no better feeling in the world.”

Two goals in two games in January 2014 helped lift Villa to a draw with Liverpool and a 4-3 win over neighbours West Brom before a brace in a crucial, relegation avoiding, 3-1 win over Hull City, underlined that Weimann had a knack for scoring important goals even if they proved few and far between.

Weimann, in Lambert’s surprising third season in charge, made a squad place his own in 2014-15 however the long overdue end of Lambert’s torrid reign brought about a significant change in fortunes for the Austrian.

Having missed just one of Lambert’s 28 squads, making 20 starts and 7 substitute appearances, Weimann scored just 4 goals.

Lambert’s replacement Tim Sherwood immediately relegated Weimann to the bench giving him 5 substitute appearances in 6 games before his first start for Sherwood in what would prove to be his penultimate game - a 1-3 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday, 4 April 2015.

Weimann would make one further substitute appearance under Sherwood away to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, 11 April 2015 but his Villa career was already over.

Weimann recalls the point at which he knew the end was near during a meeting with Sherwood “We started talking a little bit about me, how it’s going and stuff and he said I needed a change of scenery. If the manager says that to you, it’s time to go.”

If that disappointment wasn’t enough, Weimann was omitted completely from the Villa squad to line up against Arsenal in the 2015 FA Cup Final at Wembley.

“That hurt me the most, missing the FA Cup final, I’ll tell you that openly. I don’t think I missed a game or training session all season. Coming through the youth team, getting to the cup final was massive. But I missed out.”

“Arsenal were too good for us, we lost badly and to make it worse I was sat in my suit watching it.”

Weimann moved on to Derby County in July 2015 for a fee of £3,420,000 aged 23 with a heavy heart.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to stay at Villa, of course I did but Tim Sherwood didn’t see what Paul Lambert saw in me and I felt I wouldn’t have a chance of playing regularly.”

“I had one year left of my contract, I could have stayed, but that’s not me. I want to be playing every week and I want to be happy and I wasn’t for those three months.”

“When you’re in the youth team your dream is to play in the first team. I was lucky enough to get there. Another dream is to play in the Premier League and I think I played over 100 games there for Villa.”

“It was brilliant. Of course I wanted it to be longer, but overall I only look back with happy memories.”