Player #889 for Aston Villa, Tommy Elphick, played as a centre back for the club between 2016-17 and 2018-19, making 46 appearances and scoring once.

Elphick was born in Brighton on 7 September 1987 and was signed from AFC Bournemouth for £3,510,000 under Roberto Di Matteo in July 2016 and his arrival was one of several notable Villa signings that the maligned and brief Di Matteo management team oversaw, including James Chester, Mile Jedinak, Albert Adomah and Jonathan Kodjia.

Elphick made his debut appearance for Villa at the age of 28 on Sunday, 7 August 2016, in the opening day Championship defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.

Although Di Matteo’s regime was short-lived, his transfer legacy was not. Elphick was the antidote to the largely terrible 2015-16 intake, the ageing pros of 2014-15 and the lower league players of 2012-14.

The rebuilding of Villa and reconnection with the fans that Villa so desperately required following relegation started with Elphick.

Elphick was old enough to be experienced, young enough to be enthusiastic and grateful enough to grab his chance at his first ‘big’ club opportunity.

Elphick didn’t disappoint, and although he wasn’t a key figure in Villa’s ultimate promotion season, the work he did was second only to fellow defensive newcomer James Chester.

Elphick started all 13 of Villa’s first Championship games, including one appearance under Di Matteo’s replacement as Villa boss, Steve Bruce.

Initially, Bruce preferred homegrown defender Nathan Baker to partner James Chester, with Elphick largely confined to the substitutes’ bench for much of the 2016-17 season; however, he accumulated eight starts and six substitute appearances under Bruce.

2017-18 saw Bruce strengthen Villa’s defensive options with the signings of veterans Christopher Samba and John Terry as well as his go-to right back Ahmed Elmohamady and in doing so Bruce initially limited Elphick’s appearances to the EFL Cup before a period from 1 December 2017 through to January 2018 that saw Elphick named in ten consecutive squads and make four appearances.

Despite his popularity, it was clear that Bruce did not favour Elphick, and it was somewhat inevitable when Bruce sent him out on loan to Bruce’s former team, Hull City, between 31 August 2018 and 29 December 2018, having made just three starts for Villa in the 2018-19 season.

With Bruce’s sacking and the arrival of Dean Smith and a more positive, attacking, possession-based footballing philosophy, it was anticipated that Elphick would get a fresh start, and at the end of his loan spell, exactly that happened.

The returned Elphick was an immediate starter in the first team and made 11 consecutive appearances in Villa’s march towards promotion back to the Premier League.

Sadly, however, just as he was finally being given a consistent opportunity to impress with Villa, injury struck and ruled him out of the remainder of the campaign, only returning to the squad at the end of the regular Championship season but missing out on Villa’s successful Play Off final win over Derby County on Monday, 27 May 2019.

Elphick had made his final appearance for Villa on Saturday, 2 March 2019, aged 31, before being released by Villa in May 2019.

Elphick’s departure left a feeling that he had been poorly treated by Steve Bruce, and as a result, his game time and confidence when selected faltered in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whilst inevitably, players move on, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Elphick did everything the right way, and for that, Villa should be eternally grateful.

Elphick played under Roberto Di Matteo, Steve Bruce and Dean Smith.