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11 Aug, 2019 14:07

'Never tell anyone they can’t achieve something': Premier League debut star hits out at doubting fan

'Never tell anyone they can’t achieve something': Premier League debut star hits out at doubting fan

The morning after making his Premier League debut, Aston Villa's Irish midfielder Conor Hourihane highlighted a five year old tweet sent to him by a football fan who said he would never make it to the top level of the game.

Hourihane, 28, was a crucial component to Aston Villa’s promotion push last season, masterminding the midfield of the team which earned their Premier League spurs by defeating Derby County in the Championship Playoff Final in May and, the morning after his official debut for Villa in England’s top flight, he made sure to settle a score with a doubting football fan from more than five years ago.

The Irishman, then in the colors of lower-tier side Plymouth Argyle, had spoken of his ambition to play at England’s highest level in an interview conducted in 2014 – an assertion which one Twitter user took umbrage with.

You’re Argyle’s best player no danger, but Premier League?” Twitter user Craig Taylor wrote. “There’s ambitions and there’s reality.”

Hourihane replied at the time: “Something to work towards every day. Can I not dream!!?”

On Saturday, that dream came true. Hourihane was selected to start Aston Villa’s first top-flight fixture since being relegated to the Championship in 2016. And the Irishman impressed Villa’s defeat to Champions League finalists Tottenham Hotspur, prompting the player to issue a reminder to fans to “never tell anyone they can’t achieve something.”

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Perhaps the most ironic element of the exchange was the fact that the Twitter fan who doubted Hourihane’s potential is actually an Aston Villa supporter.

Hourihane moved to Barnsley later that same year, where he was installed as club captain before joining up with Aston Villa in 2016, where he scored a respectable 21 goals from midfield over the course of the next three seasons.

One has to wonder just how many of those strikes were as satisfying as his Sunday morning social media callout.

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