Villa pull a Villa and release Marc Albrighton

We knew it was coming, but the club's official Twitter account just confirmed that we won't be seeing Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso anymore in claret and blue.

The Club can confirm that both Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso have been released. Read here: http://t.co/RByBW0z3JL #AVFC

— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) May 20, 2014

Delfouneso was a lost cause to many Villa fans, having spent the past couple years toiling in the lower divisions on various loan spells. He showed a lot of promise early in his career, but things didn't pan out for various reasons.

Marc Albrighton hurts more for the club to lose. He may be remembered as the player who scored the 20,000th goal in Premier League history, against Arsenal. Marc was a rising star under Gérard Houllier, but injuries and Alex McLeish really stopped his career progression in its tracks. This year, he seemed to have a feud with manager Paul Lambert. Lambert would say that Albrighton did well in training, and performed well in matches, yet failed to consistently select the player. Could that be a reason the player was released by the club? In a transfer window which Lambert is surely not getting a very large budget, letting players that could be utilised leave on free transfers, especially to newly promoted sides, hurts. A lot.

Follow @JackGrimse