I thought he had it hard last season, injured a lot of it, and when he was inform, so to were AW and Gabby who got picked ahead of him....
If you go back and watch some of the games, he made some key passes that lead to quite a few goals, e.g. Norwich in the cup, West Ham, QPR (actually made the difference coming)...
Interestingly, he's highlighted here in the list of "outs": http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-squad-numbers-revealed-5316171
Maybe it's not a sure fire thing he's being flogged?