Nathan Delfouneso

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Seasons

Age*

Division

Appearances

Starts

Substitute

Unused

Goals

From

Played Under

Martin O’Neill |
Gérard Houllier |
Alex McLeish |
Paul Lambert |

First Squad Appearance

Debut Appearance

First Goal

Thursday, 4 December 2008

Final Appearance

Saturday, 25 August 2012

Everton (h), Premier League

Final Squad Appearance

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Nathan Delfouneso

Player #814 for Aston Villa, Nathan Delfouneso played as a forward for the club between 2008-09 and 2012-13 making 54 appearances and scoring 9 goals.

Delfouneso was born in Tyseley, Birmingham on 2 February 1991 and was promoted from the Youth Team by Martin O’Neill in July 2008.

O’Neill handed Delfouneso his debut appearance for Villa on Thursday, 14 August 2008 aged 17 in the UEFA Cup tie win at Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar as a 76’ substitute for Gabby Agbonlahor.

Delfouneso would also play in the second leg of the tie on Thursday, 28 August 2008 having once again replaced Agbonlahor this time in the 62’.

Delfouneso would make another 11 appearances in 2008-09 including his first start in the UEFA Cup Group F Game 3 against MŠK Žilina on Thursday, 4 December 2008 scoring Villa’s goal in the 28’ of a 1-2 defeat.

Delfouneso followed that up with a second European strike at Hamburger SV on Wednesday, 17 December 2008 in another defeat.

Delfouneso made it three goals for the season with the final strike in Villa’s FA Cup 4th Round Replay win on Wednesday, 4 February 2009.

O’Neill would then hand Delfouneso another start on Thursday, 26 February 2009 in his controversial selection for Villa’s Round of 32 UEFA Cup tie at CSKA Moscow where he played a weakened team of youngsters and reserves and forfeited Villa’s best chance of European success in 26 years.

In total Delfouneso had delivered 3 goals in 13 appearances in his debut season with Villa hungry to see his apparent potential develop.

2009-10 however saw O’Neill use Delfouneso more sparingly - making 13 appearances but only 2 starts whilst once again hitting 3 goals including his first Premier League strike on Sunday, 18 April 2010 - the winner in a 2-1 win at Portsmouth.

With six goals in 26 appearances and still only 20 Delfouneso still showed promise but in truth his progress had slowed.

A change of manager - with Gérard Houllier replacing O’Neill after the latter walked out on Villa on the eve of the 2010-11 campaign - did little to enhance Delfouneso’s development. 17 appearances including just 4 starts and 2 goals was the sum total of his first team exposure.

After Villa’s brush with relegation and Houllier’s failure to either start or finish the 2010-11 season as Villa boss, Alex McLeish was installed as his replacement and the end was near for Delfouneso.

Just 10 appearances and a period out on loan and a single league cup goal was all Delfouneso had to show for the season.

Delfouneso would remain with the club through yet another managerial change as Paul Lambert arrived but a single Premier League start in Villa’s 1-3 home defeat to Everton on Saturday, 25 August 2012 proved to be his final game in a Villa shirt.

Delfouneso would be sent out on loan to Leicester, Blackpool and Coventry before finally making a permanent move to Blackpool in July 2014 nearly two years after his final appearance.