Player #878 for Aston Villa, Idrissa Gana Gueye, known as Idrissa Gueye, played as a midfielder for the club in Villa’s Premier League relegation season of 2015-16, making 38 appearances and scoring once.

Gueye was born in Dakar, Senegal, on 26 September 1989 and was signed from LOSC Lille for €9.00m on 10 July 2015.

His arrival was a refreshing antidote to the 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 Adama Traoré, Micah Richards, Jordan Veretout, Jordan Ayew, Rudy Gestede, Joleon Lescott and José Ángel Crespo were brought to the club despite being nowhere near the standard required of top-flight players, and Villa paid the price.

That raft of controversial signings undertaken ostensibly under the leadership of Tim Sherwood but in truth driven by the sheer idiocy of Sporting Director Hendrik Almstadt and Director of Scouting and Recruitment Paddy Riley. Two names that would be painted into Villa folklore for their footballing illiteracy and ultimate responsibility for Villa’s first relegation in three decades.

Idrissa Gueye was a different matter altogether, however, and although he clearly saw his time in the Premier League as a stepping stone, there was no suggestion from how he played the game that he didn’t give his all for the side and the teammates around him who were significantly inferior to himself.

Reversing the recent trend of Villa managers, Tim Sherwood had recruited a genuinely excellent midfielder and a more than fitting replacement for the now departed Fabian Delph.

Unfortunately, despite Gueye’s excellent showings during the season, he could not help Villa avoid relegation, and the sole positive newcomer, other than the largely absent Jordan Amavi, was gone, not wishing to stay with Villa in the second tier.

Gueye had made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 8 August 2015, aged 26, in what would prove to be a rare victory in Villa’s 2015-16 Premier League campaign.

The testament to Gueye’s importance to an otherwise pitiful Villa squad was his starting selection whenever he was available.

Gueye’s work was cut out as a defensive midfielder, breaking up play and trying to protect Villa’s powder puff defence, but he repeatedly showed that he deserved to be playing alongside far better players than those that Villa could currently offer him.

Gueye scored his only goal for Villa in the 2-0 FA Cup 3rd Round Replay against Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday, 19 January 2016, but that wasn’t his game.

Gueye made his final appearance for Villa on Sunday, 15 May 2016, aged 26, in Villa’s 0-4 defeat to Arsenal, with Villa already having long been relegated. Unlike some of his lesser team-mates who absented themselves from playing duty and responsibility for the debacle they had created in 2015-16, Gueye played on to the bitter end.

It was therefore little surprise that Gueye left the club with Villa playing in the second tier; however, what was truly surprising was both his destination and transfer fee. Joining perennial mid-table fodder Everton in August 2016 for a fee of just €8.50m underlined how poorly the club was being run on and off the pitch, much to its disadvantage.

When it was later revealed that the incompetent Paddy Riley had actively inserted such a low release fee in Gueye’s contract, it shocked no one.

Equally unsurprising was Gueye’s €30.00m move in 2019 for Champions League football with Paris Saint-Germain.

The folly of Lerner, Fox, Riley, Almstadt and 2015-16 never stops.

Gueye had played under Tim Sherwood, Rémi Garde and Eric Black.