While things are going swimmingly well for all at Aston Villa, that hasn't always been the case, especially when considering some of their deals across the transfer front.
Truthfully, Villa have spent the majority of the last decade languishing towards the bottom of the Premier League or fighting tooth and nail to get out of the Championship.
Following their detrimental relegation to the second tier in 2016, the club flexed their financial muscles in the transfer window, spending a whopping £74m (£85.5m) in their attempts to bounce straight back to the top flight.
While the likes of James Chester, Conor Hourihane and Albert Adomah laid the foundations for their eventual promotion in 2019, the £12m captures of Brentford's Scott Hogan and Fulham's Ross McCormack ultimately proved to be two of the worst deals that the club have struck in recent years, and were major reasons why Villa spent three seasons in the Championship.
McCormack, in particular, will go down as one of the worst signings in the club's history.
How much did McCormack cost Aston Villa?
McCormack arrived at Villa Park as one of the most explosive strikers the Championship has ever seen, warranting the reported £12m fee that the club shelled out for him.
The Scottish forward was devastatingly ruthless in front of goal, combining his sharp movement with precise finishing to become one of the hottest commodities in the second tier – attributes that were backed up by his monstrous goal-scoring returns.
On the back of a 23 goal haul for Fulham in the 2015/16 season – and a combined 71 goals across the previous three seasons – McCormack was brewing up a big money move for quite some time.
Villa managed to fend off a whole host of competition, including relegated clubs Newcastle and Norwich to capture him and many expected the Midlands club to run away with the Championship title having assembled a squad deemed too good for the level, and McCormack played a huge role in that estimation.
At 30-years-old, the clinical forward joined the club at the peak of his powers but with the transfer fee weighing heavy on his shoulders, McCormack crumbled under the weight of the pressure, costing the Villans a whopping £38.5k per-week in wages, which accumulated to around £5m across two seasons and £17m overall when adding the initial transfer fee to the wage expenditure.
It is safe to say that the signing of McCormack, like many during that period, saw Villa throw money down the drain.
How well did McCormack play for Aston Villa?
Arriving at the club as one of the greatest players to grace the Championship and ending his spell at Villa Park as a colossal failure, there are many reasons why McCormack's career in England fell on deaf ears.
Mustering only three goals in 24 appearances – at a cost of £5.6m per goal – McCormack was eventually released in 2019 following loan spells at Nottingham Forest, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne City FC and Motherwell, and is solely remembered for the angst he caused off the field rather than his performances on it.
With his poor attitude getting in the way of his natural footballing ability, the Scotland international famously missed training when Steve Bruce was manager due to an incident with the gate at his house, and the veteran manager didn't hold back in his criticism of the player.
He said: “In my opinion, he is not fit enough to play, and he will not play unless his attitude towards training and missing training improves. If that improves then I will reconsider him but if he continues to miss training, as he has done, that will be the situation."
The Scot faced criticism for his conduct from all angles as Simon Jordan, a regular pundit on talkSPORT, dubbed him as a "lazy slob".
While Villa supporters remember McCormack for his misconduct, disinterested performances and drainage of the club's resources, he is still regarded as one of the greatest strikers to grace the EFL since the turn of the millennium.
