Where are they now? Aston Villa’s 3 wonderkids from Football Manager 2015
The 2014-15 season is not one especially fondly remembered by Aston Villa fans, despite reaching the FA Cup final and avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
When Football Manager 2015 was released in November 2014, the club were stuck in the dying embers of the Paul Lambert era. They eventually finished 17th under Tim Sherwood, lost 4-0 to Arsenal in the Cup final and were relegated in bottom place with just 17 points the year after.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, with a number of talented prospects on the fringes of Lambert’s squad. FMScout picked out three future wonderkids from FM2015. A decade on, we’ve checked in on them.
Easah Suliman
Despite his talent being sufficent enough to attract interest from Bayern Munich and Liverpool, Suliman was never fortunate enough to play for Villa.
After a succession of loan spells, he left Villa Park in 2020 and signed for Vitoria Guimaraes.
You can now find Suliman playing in Azerbaijan for Sumgayit and the Birmingham-born defender also captains the Pakistan national team. That’s pretty cool.
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Jack Grealish
Grealish enjoyed his breakthrough season in 2014-15, becoming a starter for Sherwood’s Villa and playing an instrumental role in their FA Cup semi-final win over Liverpool.
Fast forward 10 years and he’s certainly lived up to that early promise. The Premier League’s first £100million footballer. The most expensive English signing in history. A triple Premier League champion and a treble-winner to boot.
He’s had his difficulties in recent months from a succession of injuries to a loss of form that saw him excluded from England’s Euro 2024 squad.
But it’s safe to say he’s done alright for himself and Football Manger called this one right – despite listing him as Irish.
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Callum Robinson
Robinson is only 29 but has had something of a nomadic career after leaving Aston Villa in 2016 in search of more regular opportunities.
He’s had his moments over the years (who remembers him tearing apart Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea as part of West Brom’s improbable 5-2 win in 2021?) but the striker has probably found his level in the Championship.
Nowadays he’s leading the line for Cardiff City, which sounds about right, while also scoring nine times in 38 caps for the Republic of Ireland