Season #2 | 1880-81 | Games #3 - #6
133 Seasons, 33 Managers, 983 Players, 5,671 Matches, Only One Aston Villa
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Player #833
Appearances:
42
Starts:
36
Goals:
2
Seasons:
7
Villa News & Record
Chris Herd
Position
Midfielder
From
2008-09
To
2014-15
🇦🇺
IMAGE CREDIT
Chris Herd
Seasons Quick-View
Seasons
Age*
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
Division
PL | PL | PL | PL | PL | PL | PL |
Appearances
42 |
0 | 0 | 7 | 20 | 13 | 2 | 0 |
Starts
36 |
0 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 12 | 2 | 0 |
Substitute
6 |
0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Unused
30 |
1 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
Goals
2 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
*Age on opening day of the season
FAC: FA Cup; FL: Football League; D1: Division 1; D2: Division 2; D3: Division 3; PL: Premier League; CH: Championship
FULL SEASON BREAKDOWN
Christopher Herd
Birth Date
Tuesday, 4 April 1989
Birth Place
Melbourne
Birth Country
Australia
Villa Youth
2005-07 Aston Villa Under 18s |
From
Transfer in
ECU Joondalup
From
For
Free
On
Tuesday, 1 February 2005
Previous Clubs
Youth Team |
Loans Out
2008 Port Vale, 9 Jan 2008 to 12 Mar 2008, 11 (2) |
2008 Wycombe Wanderers, 14 Mar 2008 to 16 Apr 2008, 4 (0) |
2009-10 Lincoln City, 26 Nov 2009 to 1 Jun 2010, 20 (4) |
2014 Bolton Wanderers, 23 Sep 2014 to 9 Nov 2014, 2 (0) |
2015 Wigan Athletic, 26 Jan 2015 to 19 Feb 2015, 3 (0) |
Transfer Out
To
Unattached
For
Released
On
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Subsequent Clubs
2015-16 Chesterfield |
2016 Perth Glory, Free |
2016-17 Gillingham FC |
2017-18 Western Sydney Wanderers FC |
2018-19 Buriram United, Thailand, Free |
2019 Chennaiyin FC, India, Free |
2019-20 Sheikh Russel KC, Bangladesh |
2021- Terengganu FC, Malaysia |
Villa News & Record
Villa Career
Seasons Active, Fee, Starts (Sub) | Goals |
2008-15 Yth, 42 | 36 (6) | 2 |
STARTS
SUBS
GOALS
Played Under
Gérard Houllier |
Alex McLeish |
Paul Lambert |
First Squad Appearance
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Debut Appearance
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Manchester United (h), Premier League
DEBUT
First Goal
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Final Appearance
Saturday, 21 December 2013
Stoke City (a), Premier League
FINAL
Final Squad Appearance
Saturday, 21 December 2013
Honours
Played for the Villa
Height
(5 ft 8 in) 1.73 m
Foot
Right
International Team
Australia
Chris Herd
Player #833 for Aston Villa, Christopher Herd known as Chris Herd played as a midfielder for the club between 2010-11 and 2013-14 making 42 appearances and scoring twice.
Herd was born in Melbourne on 4 April 1989 and signed for Villa from ECU Joondalup in his native Australia aged 15 in February 2005 alongside Shane Lowry under David O’Leary on an initial two-year YTS deal with a one-year professional contract attached.
It would however be the arrival of Gérard Houllier nearly 6 years later who would hand Herd his debut aged 21 on Saturday, 13 November 2010 in the draw with Manchester United with Herd arriving as a 90’ substitute for fellow youth team prospect Jonathan Hogg.
Herd would go on to make 3 consecutive substitute appearances before a run of 8 games in the squad and being used as a substitute on a further 2 occasions.
Houllier handed Herd his first start in the FA Cup 5th Round defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday, 2 March 2011 and followed that up with a first Premier League start on Saturday, 19 March 2011 as Villa lost at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
That was to prove Herd’s final first team action of his debut season and when he returned to the squad Houllier was gone, replaced by Alex McLeish.
After a slow start to 2011-12 (2 appearances in the first 12 matches) Herd was named in the starting line up for the Premier League defeat to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, 22 October 2011 and despite that reverse Herd would have his longest run in the team to date with 7 consecutive starts before injury ruled him out of contention for the next 12 matches.
On his recovery Herd regained his place and started 11 of the final 12 matches of the season during which time he scored his first goal for Villa to earn a draw at Anfield on Saturday, 7 April 2012.
With McLeish’s departure and the arrival of Paul Lambert bringing with him a policy of recruiting and playing lower league players, Herd found games difficult to come by - starting just 4 of the first 12 matches before once again injury interrupted.
Returning in December 2012, Herd made 8 consecutive League starts that included Lambert presiding over Villa’s worst ever defeat in all competitions - losing 0-8 to Chelsea on Sunday, 23 December 2012.
Shortly thereafter Herd was once again struck down with injury and missed the remainder of the 2012-13 campaign.
It was here that one of the great enduring Villa Park mysteries began… whatever was happening with Chris Herd?
Missing 12 games through injury in 2011-12; 23 games in 2012-13 and then another 25 games in 2013-14.
Was this a case of extreme proneness to injury or was there something else happening behind the scenes causing Herd’s regular absences?
2014-15 saw Herd officially ‘injured’ once again and under both Lambert and his successor Tim Sherwood, despite 7 squad appearances Herd failed to make a first team appearance across the entire campaign.
As a result Herd’s final appearance had come on Saturday, 21 December 2013 aged 24 in the defeat at Stoke City before he was finally released by the club almost two years later in July 2015 aged 26.
There is no way a player of Herd’s capability and proven performance should have disappeared from the Villa first team, drifting between lower league and unattached status and then rocking up in Thailand, India and Bangladesh.
Perhaps we’ll never know why. In the meantime the rumour mill will remain running.