Alan Hutton still can’t quite believe how his club fortunes have turned around.
From being a pariah for two years at Aston Villa, Hutton is back this season as first-choice right back and he even signed a new three-year contract in September.
After loan spells at Nottingham Forest, Real Mallorca and Bolton, it looked like Hutton’s days at Villa were numbered.
But thanks to help in varying degrees from Gordon Strachan, Paul Lambert and Roy Keane, the Scotland internationalist has been rejuvenated.
Keane has now left his role as No.2 at Villa Park after just a few months in the job, but Hutton acknowledges the impact he made.
“I was surprised Roy left. It was a shock,” acknowledged the former Rangers man. I had a good working relationship with him. You could go and talk with him whenever you wanted.
“He demanded a lot from the players to give their all in training and hopefully that legacy will remain. He definitely came in and put it across that he wanted our standards to be high all the time.
“I got that. If you’re training like that, then you’re going to take that intensity into games and I understand why. It’s only been a week or so since Roy left, but the lads are giving their all.”
Having been a regular for Strachan during his club problems, Hutton was disappointed to miss the games against the Republic of Ireland and England through injury.
But he admits that those international matches had been the only thing to look forward to in those dark moments.
“I owe a massive amount to Gordon,” he says. “There was no reason for him to pick me but he did. Not just in friendlies but in qualifying games as well.
“If I had down time here, I used to look to the international games for focus.
“Then I hadn’t missed a Scotland game for a while before the Ireland game. I was devastated. But hopefully there will be more to come, and the game in Ireland in June will be massive.
“If someone had told me last season I would get a new contract at Villa, I would have laughed. From where I was then to now is a total turnaround.
“I felt I had a lot to give and I wanted to do it here at Villa. I owed a lot to the fans and I wanted to prove everybody wrong.”
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