Gabby Agbonlahor has been offered “the best solution” by Xia and Di Matteo

A few days ago it seemed certain that Gabby Agbonlahor would be leaving Aston Villa. He had burned bridges with the club and fans last year, and Roberto Di Matteo had made it clear that the striker was not in his plans for the season. Today, however, we’ve received two hints that there might be a future for Gabby at the club after all.

The first came in an Instagram post today in which Agbonlahor used #notgoinganywhere as a hashtag along with #vtid and #oneclub.

And then, just now, club owner Tony Xia tweeted that he and Di Matteo have sat down and talked to Agbonlahor about what is next for him at Aston Villa:

Now, the “best solution” may not be him playing with Villa or even staying, but this does seem like a quick turnaround from what we all sort of “knew” was going to happen a few days ago.

We’ll keep our eyes open, but it’s hard to imagine Gabby contributing that much to this team. But if something can be salvaged from the ashes of his career, I think we’d all be happy to see it.

UPDATE

Tony Xia has clarified his position of what “the best solution” for Agbonlahor is:

So a loan off somewhere with a chance to prove himself. That makes some sense, but if Villa are still eating Gabby’s wages, it’s probably not “the best solution.” Let’s hope some smart wheeling and dealing can be done.