Player #812 for Aston Villa, Bradley Edwin Guzan played as a goalkeeper for the club between 2008-09 and 2015-16 making 171 appearances becoming the 91st custodian of the Villa goal.

Guzan was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois on 9 September 1984 and was signed by Martin O’Neill from Club Deportivo Chivas USA for £900,000 in August 2008.

O’Neill handed Guzan his debut on Wednesday, 24 September 2008 aged 24 in the 3rd Round League Cup defeat to Queens Park Rangers.

Although he was another goalkeeper named Brad from the USA, Guzan was no Friedel despite his semi regular promotion to the first team.

O’Neill, as was his way, fielded weakened teams in Cup competitions throughout his Villa career and duly selected Guzan above regular ‘keeper Brad Friedel in both the FA Cup and UEFA Cup as O’Neill controversially threw away potential European glory with his selections.

In total Guzan made 8 appearances in 2008-09 conceding 10 at a reasonable rate of 1.25 goals per game.

O’Neill once again prioritised Guzan for Cup appearances for 2009-10 before dropping the younger Brad for Friedel for the League Cup final and FA Cup semi final.

Guzan had put in an impressive penalty saving performance in the League Cup 4th Round tie at Sunderland on Tuesday, 27 October 2009 but he wasn’t of the calibre of Villa’s #1 and remained confined to cup appearances - making 3 in 2010-11 under O’Neill’s successors caretaker Kevin MacDonald and later Gérard Houllier.

The arrival of Alex McLeish as Villa boss in 2011-12 saw the transfer in of celebrated veteran goalkeeper Shay Given and his appointment as Villa’s #1 was immediate following fellow veteran Brad Friedel’s departure.

Injury to Given however ruled him out of 6 games allowing Guzan to step up to the starting line up supported by Andy Marshall as understudy before Given returned for the remainder of the 2011-12 campaign.

However despite his regular squad place, such were the doubts about Guzan’s ability that he was released by the club in May 2012 at the end of McLeish’s reign but inexplicably his replacement Paul Lambert re-signed Guzan 3 months later in July 2012.

The departure of McLeish and arrival of Paul Lambert signalled a nadir for Villa in more ways than one.

Indeed despite his obvious shortcomings as a goalkeeper, Lambert not only re-signed Guzan but gave him opportunity after opportunity to play giving him a largesse that many better players of the era were not afforded by Lambert.

With the insane ostracism of Given from Villa squads by Lambert, Guzan was promoted to Villa’s #1 in 2012-13.

Making 37 appearances and conceding 65 goals at a rate of 1.76 goals per game Guzan’s stats made grim reading and including his conceding of 15 goals in 3 games as Villa under Lambert recorded their worst ever defeat in all competitions - 0-8 to Chelsea on Sunday, 23 December 2012 - followed by 0-4 and 0-3 defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Wigan Athletic respectively,

2013-14 saw Guzan make 38 appearances, conceding 61 at a rate of 1.61 goals per game as Villa once again struggled against relegation under Lambert.

2014-15 saw Lambert’s bewildering reign finally ended but despite Shay Given being brought back into the fold by interim Villa boss Tim Sherwood, Guzan made 34 appearances as Sherwood initially managed to tighten up the Villa defence whilst narrowly avoiding relegation for the fifth successive season.

However Villa’s luck could only last so long and Guzan’s poor performances - admittedly in common with much of the 2015-16 team - went on to be instrumental in Villa’s first relegation in nearly 30 years.

Making 32 appearances and conceding at a rate of 2.00 goals per game Guzan had a terrible season and he and Villa set a series of unwanted records.

Somewhat surprisingly, but in no way not overdue, Guzan chose to leave the club for Middlesbrough on a free transfer in July 2016. Luckily there was no last minute change of heart this time.

Guzan had been the 91st custodian of the Villa goal in professional football and across his scarcely credible 171 appearances he conceded 275 goals at 1.61 goals per game whilst keeping 35 clean sheets (20%).

Guzan patently wasn’t of the calibre required however was it his fault he was repeatedly selected ahead of far better ‘keepers or that Villa’s recruitment strategy in that area was so poor during the later periods of his career with the club?

The reality is Guzan, for all his shortcomings, was simply another product of the terrible mismanagement that infected Villa in the 2010s.