Former Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar has conceded that he was not surprised to see the Midlands club suffer relegation from the Premier League.
Vlaar spent three years at Aston Villa before leaving the club in the summer of 2015 when his contract with the Villans expired.
The following season Aston Villa were relegated from the Premier League and it took them three years to return to the top tier ahead of the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
The Dutchman admits that he was not surprised to see Aston Villa relegated after he left as had seen the lack of work ethic and lack of direction in the squad when he was there at the club.
“I wasn’t surprised when Aston Villa were relegated”, Vlaar told The Athletic.
“It was hard there. I was fighting with myself because of the lack of direction and I wanted to see some more of my team-mates trying to improve their game.”
The defender admits that when he decided to leave Feyenoord for Aston Villa he was expecting a more professional club, but there was a distinct lack of hunger in the players around him.
He felt some of the fringe players showed little work ethic and eventually the lack of investment returned to bite Aston Villa and they dropped down to the Championship.
“I thought when I went to the Premier League, everything would be great, but it just wasn’t like that.
“I missed the hunger from those around me to improve.
"There wasn’t much extra training or effort, and if some of them [the players] didn’t play, they were disappointed and their laziness started to show.
“It’s not a coincidence Villa went down because there were no investments towards the end, either.
"It wasn’t going to change.”
Aston Villa will hope that the current squad show more hunger and a willingness to work hard in order to stay in the Premier League.
