Player #869 for Aston Villa, Carlos Alberto Sánchez Moreno known as Carlos Sánchez played as a midfielder for the club in Villa’s 2014-15 and 2015-16 Premier League campaigns, with the latter ending in Villa’s first relegation from the top tier in nearly 30 years. Carlos made 56 appearances and scored once.

Sánchez was born in Quibdó, Colombia on 6 February 1986.

Paul Lambert had signed Sánchez from Elche CF for £5,400,000 on 15 August 2014 and his arrival was one of a number of sub-standard Villa signings that maligned the club throughout the 2015-16 campaign and drove Villa to their first relegation in nearly 30 years. Players such as Sánchez as well as Jordan Ayew, Jordan Veretout, Adama Traoré, Rudy Gestede, Joleon Lescott and José Ángel Crespo were brought to the club despite being nowhere near the standard for a top flight player and Villa paid the price.

Sánchez was the latest in a long recent line of expensive midfielders brought into the club by successive managers who didn’t possess the necessary abilities to cope with top flight football.

O’Leary had Djemba Djemba, O’Neill had Salifou and Houllier had Makoun. Lambert had started his own set with Karim El Ahmadi and Yacouba Sylla but he still wasn’t done, enter Carlos Sánchez.

Sánchez made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 23 August 2014 aged 28 in the 0-0 draw with Newcastle United after coming on as a 62’ substitute for Charles N’Zogbia.

Sánchez made his first start in the League Cup 2nd Round defeat to Leyton Orient on Wednesday, 27 August 2014 but returned as a substitute for the following two Premier League fixtures as to the surprise of many Lambert’s team made the best start to a campaign since John Gregory’s in 1998-99.

Sánchez was promoted to the starting line up for the Premier League match with Arsenal on Saturday, 20 September 2014 which ended in a 0-3 defeat for Villa before once again being benched for the following 3 fixtures.

With Villa having lost their last four Premier League matches on aggregate 0-11, Sánchez was recalled to the starting line up but he could not prevent two more successive defeats, however in a run of 5 games in the starting line up Sánchez did help Villa to their best unbeaten run of the season with three successive draws.

Thereafter Sánchez was a regular starter for Villa under Lambert however the team’s indifferent form continued and after five successive league defeats in January and February 2015, Lambert was finally shown the door with Sánchez having been relegated to the subs bench for his final two fixtures.

Lambert’s successor, Tim Sherwood, continued to confine Sánchez to the bench with the Colombian making just five starts in 16 appearances to the season end. Sánchez however scored his first and only goal for Villa in the 2-3 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, 25 April 2015 and came on as a 71’ substitute for Ashley Westwood in the 2015 FA Cup Final against Arsenal however Sánchez’s debut season with Villa had, on balance, been underwhelming.

2015-16 saw interim manager Sherwood surprisingly kept in post and with a major, though disjointed overhaul of the squad having taken place in the close season, it was not clear where and how often Sánchez would appear in the first team.

Sánchez however was named in every one of Sherwood’s squads until his sacking in October 2015 with Sánchez having made 6 starts and 2 substitute appearances in 12 games. With Villa having lost 8 of those 12 games, caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald reinstated Sánchez to the starting line up to add some more strength to a midfield of Ashley Westwood and Jordan Veretout.

Villa however continued to lose with alarming regularity and following the arrival of Tim Sherwood’s successor Rémi Garde, Sánchez was given a run of 7 games in the side, drawing 4 and losing 3 as Villa remained rooted to the bottom of the table.

Sánchez missed the next 15 matches due to ‘injury’ although midway through his absence he oddly made an FA Cup appearance in the 3rd Round replay with Wycombe Wanderers before once again returning to the ‘injury’ list.

With Rémi Garde’s disastrous tenure ended by his resignation in March 2016, the ‘injured’ Sánchez recovered to be named in the starting line up for caretaker manager Eric Black’s first squad on Saturday, 2 April 2016.

Sánchez would play in 5 of Villa’s last 7 games of the season as their relegation to the Football League Championship was confirmed.

Sánchez made his final appearance for Villa on Sunday, 15 May 2016 in the 0-4 loss at Arsenal aged 30.

For 2016-17 new Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo sent Sánchez out on loan to ACF Fiorentina ahead of a permanent move in July 2017 for a fee of £2,700,000 aged 31.

Sánchez played under Paul Lambert, Scott Marshall & Andy Marshall, Tim Sherwood and Eric Black.