Player #878 for Aston Villa, Jordan Pierre Ayew known as Jordan Ayew played as a forward for the club in Villa’s Premier League relegation season of 2015-16 and during the Football League Championship campaign of 2016-17 making 58 appearances and scoring 10 goals.

Ayew was born in Marseille on 11 September 1991.

Tim Sherwood’s Villa had signed Ayew from FC Lorient for £10,800,000 on 27 July 2015 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 Ayew as well as Micah Richards, 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.

Ayew’s return of 10 goals in 58 appearances was pitiful yet he ended his debut season at Villa as leading scorer with 7 goals, underlining the sheer folly of the transfer policy of the club during Tim Sherwood’s period at the helm.

Ayew’s scoring and appearance record mirrored that of fellow Villa forward Rudy Gestede’s 10 in 55 appearances, but whereas the limited Gestede didn’t display the arrogance and self entitlement of some of his team-mates, the same could not be said of the misfiring Ayew.

Ayew made his debut appearance for Villa on Saturday, 8 August 2015 aged 23 with Villa recording what would turn out to be a rare victory over AFC Bournemouth in the opening game of the 2015-16 Premier League season. Ironically it was Rudy Gestede who had replaced Ayew as a 59’ substitute who scored the winner.

Ayew wouldn’t score until his eighth appearance for Villa in Tim Sherwood’s final game as Villa boss in the 1-2 defeat at Swansea City on Saturday, 24 October 2015.

Sherwood’s replacement Rémi Garde promoted Ayew to regular starter spot and the forward was a virtual ever present during Garde’s doomed 23 game tenure. Ayew repaid Garde’s faith with 3 goals in 23 appearances, a one game ban for breaching the yellow card limit and a three game ban for a needless sending off through his own petulance in the away defeat at West Ham United.

Despite his scant goalscoring threat and the liability he could be on the pitch, Garde’s replacement, caretaker boss Eric Black, retained Ayew in the starting XI with Ayew scoring twice in the final seven games of the season as Villa posted their lowest ever top flight points total.

To the surprise of many, Ayew remained with the club for the 2016-17 Football League Championship season. Whether that was through faith that the player could be reformed or a lack of interest from suitors is unclear however new Villa boss Roberto Di Matteo saw fit to name Ayew in his starting line up for his entire Villa managerial career.

That his Villa career lasted just 12 games had not a little to do with the fact that his first choice forward, Ayew, hit just one league goal in 11 appearances.

With Di Matteo’s departure and Steve Bruce’s arrival, Ayew was retained in the squad but consigned to the substitutes bench and an impact seemed to be drawn from the player. For the first time in his Villa career, Ayew affected a result positively, hitting a 90’ penalty to win a tight game away to Reading 2-1 on Tuesday, 18 October 2016. Ayew had been a 77’ substitute for Rudy Gestede.

As ever with Ayew however that proved a false dawn and after being handed another opportunity to start he flitted in and out of Steve Bruce’s team without scoring another goal and played his final game for the club in the 1-1 draw with Leeds United on Thursday, 29 December 2016 aged 25.

With the January transfer window opened and Steve Bruce having identified the glaring weaknesses in the squad he had inherited, Ayew was sold to Swansea City for a remarkably good fee of £5,310,000 plus left back Neil Taylor.

Two more different players you could not imagine than Neil Taylor and Jordan Ayew but together they represented two very different directions in which the club was being taken, for Villa, post Ayew, the only way was up.

Ayew played under Tim Sherwood, Kevin MacDonald, Rémi Garde, Eric Black, Roberto Di Matteo and Steve Bruce.