MK Dons supporter here in peace.
Not after a big debate about how controversial our club is and how much you hate it, just here to talk about one of your players. Many thanks to the admins for approving me just to specifically talk about Aaron Tshibola who is on loan to us here.
We signed Tshibola on a season-long loan at the end of July, and have to admit that amongst our fanbase at the time we were very impressed with the calibre of player we had signed, not least because of his £5m price tag a year earlier which would be unheard of in League 1. Our record club signing is Kieran Agard from Bristol City who cost us in the region of £500k+ last summer. I'd never watched Tshibola play before, but word of mouth was positive and the few clips I had seen of him suggested a solid midfielder with a good eye for a pass.
I first watched him play in a pre-season friendly against Leicester City a few days after he signed. For us, he was probably man of the match - picked out a beauty of a pass that cut through the Leicester defence and nearly created a goal. He also created numerous other opportunities. The game finished 0-0.
Since then, I'm disappointed to say he is probably been our worst performer this season so far amongst the first team. To sum up his performances so far:
Lacks drive - most of his game is spent casually strolling around midfield even when the ball is only a few feet away. He rarely closes down opposition and prefers to sit back where possible.
Complacency - makes silly errors every game, whether its a misplaced pass, picking the wrong one when better options are available, or being too negative and passing backwards for no real reason. Perfectly illustrated yesterday with his mistake that lead to him being sent off.
Looks like he doesn't want to be here - before you say all of the usual "well of course he doesn't, who would want to play for a franchise" blah blah, I'm sure you'll agree this is a player playing for his footballing future, either with Villa or another club. In all of his pre/post-match interviews he just doesn't seem to care. His "apology" yesterday on Twitter was laughable and half-hearted. Someone made a comment that it summed up his season so far - lacklustre and full of errors.
Underperforming overall - ofcourse he didn't ask for a £5m price tag, but this is a player that should really be a "cut above" the average League 1 player, especially coming from a big established club like yourselves. Not only does he not stand out in a positive way, he looks more of a League 2 player if I'm honest. He certainly hasn't offered anything that screams he should be a first team regular. At his best he is mediocre and offers nothing, and his worst, he is a real liability.
I wouldn't normally post on another club's forum about a loanee. We have 4 other players on loan from Bristol City (Golbourne), Nottingham Forest (Ariyibi), Southampton (Seager) and Ebanks-Landell (Wolves). All of them have been either above average or excellent for us. Ariyibi (a winger) is our top scorer in all competitions with 5 goals. Ebanks-Landell is a top CB who has also contributed 2 goals himself and contributed to a fairly decent defence with quite a few clean sheets. Seager is a quality player but just needs more service and Golbourne is one of the best left-backs we've had in years, and has several assists already to his name.
He's had enough time now to settle in. I hate to say it, but Tshibola is not only one of our worst players, but probably one of our worst ever loanees and if we had the option to send him back to you now we would. I have a feeling he his loan will be mutually terminated in January and rightfully so. I know he divides opinion at Villa and have heard that Bruce is not a fan and I can see why.
He is clearly capable of doing 'something' - he played very well against Leicester in pre-season, and I also recall he got an assist a month or so back with a decent pass, but that is literally the only positives I can pick out. 98% of the time he might as well not be on the pitch. Perhaps it is down to attitude, lack of motivation or something else, either way he really needs to turn his game around and sharp-ish if he wants to succeed here, at Villa or elsewhere or he'll end up in non-league.
Yes he is still young(ish), and hasn't got a massive amount of experience, but for someone commanding that price tag, either your recruitment team massively overvalued him or he is seriously out of his depth as a professional footballer.
