Copyright birminghammail
Alan Hutton admits the early years of his Aston Villa career were a nightmare, but he relished the opportunity to eventually change fans’ perceptions of him before leaving as a cult hero. The former right-back joined Villa from Tottenham Hotspur in August 2011, making 31 Premier League appearances during the 2011/12 campaign. However, he was cast aside by Paul Lambert just a year later. Hutton went on a series of loan spells — first to Nottingham Forest on an emergency loan in November 2012, then to Mallorca for the remainder of the 2012/13 season, and finally to Bolton Wanderers for the second half of the 2013/14 campaign. “Those early years were really, really difficult for me at Aston Villa, to be honest,” Hutton told Ladbrokes at the launch of Ladisfaction. “I was coming in and wasn’t even training with the first-team; I didn’t have a relationship with them, I wasn’t speaking to them, I was in a different changing room. I was having to deal with that at work, and then coming home to a young family, and I was trying to juggle so much. “I can look back now and say it was honestly a nightmare, definitely. You know, you come into a club and you sign for, what, four years or whatever it is. Things didn’t go great in the first year, and I knew I hadn’t played to the level that I knew I could. The team was struggling a little bit, as was the manager and it just didn’t quite work out. Obviously you’re gutted about the whole situation. “Then Paul Lambert comes in, we start pre-season and then out of the blue he calls me into the office and tells me he’s taking me, and a few others, out of the squad, and that he was going to be putting us in this other dressing room. He said he needed to work with just the squad he wanted to take forward into the new season. I was shocked; I just wasn’t expecting it at all. “So, you can imagine me sitting there in his office, not sure whether I’m going to tear the place up, walk out, be angry, whatever. In the end I just walked out of there and into a downward spiral, really. You know, the weeks went on and the transfer window came to a close, so I knew I wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, and you’re just there, just completely separated. The first team is going one way, and I’m going the other way.” “I’m in a different changing room, I’m training on the other pitch with the youth team, and so my head’s completely gone. You know, I’m running about, kicking people, and just being angry about the whole situation. That’s not helping their development, it’s not helping me, and it’s just getting worse and worse as the weeks go on. “What made it worse was that the first-team were struggling at the time, and you’re there thinking ‘I can help’, but the decision had already been made. It was a tough few years, I’m not going to lie. And the biggest thing is that you don’t want to take that home; you don’t want that affecting your personal life. “So after a while, I was able to manage it whereby I kept working and working and didn’t bring it home with me. I’d leave the training ground and leave everything to do with football back there; everything else was just like family time or whatever. “Football was cut off, and something I didn’t have to deal with, or think about, for the rest of the day. I say that, but if you were to ask my wife what I was like to be around at the time, she’d probably say I was a nightmare! You can imagine me coming in wanting to play every week, but instead I’m training with the kids. Sometimes I’d turn up and there’d be, like, five people. And I’m like ‘what is this all about? Like, seriously’. “Then I’m watching the games and the team is struggling; they’ve got a lot of younger players in from the lower levels and they’re trying to go down this different direction – at least that’s what I was told. But they were struggling, and I just felt like I couldn’t do anything to help. You know, I was under contract with the club… why not just use me?! “I had those conversations with Paul [Lambert] whenever I saw him. We still maintained a good relationship and I still have a good relationship with him now. I’d always let him know that I was there if he needed me, and it was always “yeah, yeah, no don’t worry about it.” At the start of the 2014/15 campaign, Hutton returned to the Villa first team and started each of the club’s first eight league matches. He became a regular under Lambert before the manager’s sacking and continued to feature in claret and blue under those who followed. Much of Hutton’s Villa career coincided with the club’s difficult years under Randy Lerner, so it was fitting that his final contributions came as he helped the team achieve promotion under Dean Smith in 2019. “Thankfully, I was able to turn it around, and the rest is history, really! It took a couple of seasons, but Paul always had meetings with his players at the end of the season just to tell them how they’d done, and what next year was going to look like. So he pulled me in – which I wasn’t expecting, ‘How would you feel if I brought you in for pre-season? No problem, gaffer. I told you before, if you need me, I’m there’. “And so I came back, raring to go, as you can imagine. There was a chip on my shoulder for sure, because I wanted to show everyone that I was still there, and there was still a place for me. Sure enough, we went away to America and I had a really good pre-season, and when I got back, they offered me a new contract! I was just, like, ‘what is happening here?!’ Like, how had I been out for that amount of time, and I’ve come back to a new contract. None of it made sense. “There would have been Villa fans out there who forgot I was playing for them – I’ve no doubt about that. And that was the challenge for me – I had to change everyone’s opinion of me. Luckily, I think I managed to do it and obviously ended up going on to spend a few more years with the club. “To be honest, when I think about everything I was lucky enough to achieve in my career, if I had to erase everything but keep one memory, I think it would be that play-off win with Villa – which is crazy when you think about where I was with the club at one stage. "You know, there’s a few things I’m proud of, like getting 50 caps for my country, different things like that. But that play-off final was huge for me. I felt both sides of the coin in that position, losing one play-off final and winning the other… to go to Wembley and win one was such a special feeling. It’s so difficult to pick out one standout memory and moment from my career, but I think I’d stick with that one.” Every day, the BirminghamLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Aston Villa content. Our dedicated reporter John Townley - who you can follow on X by clicking here - follows Villa home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between. So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur - that's why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you'll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. Sign up to the Villa newsletter here . You can also get all your favourite content from BirminghamLive's Villa team on WhatsApp. Click here to sign up for breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club. If you prefer reading our Villa stories on your phone, consider downloading the BirminghamLive app, in which you can personalise the content you see by selecting Villa as one of your designated topics. You can get it from Apple here and for Android here . Our weekly Aston Villa podcast, Claret And Blue, is also available to watch and listen on all major streaming services. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel here , while you can access the podcast on Spotify here and via Apple here .
