Aston Villa ace Donyell Malen insists he has embraced the challenge to earn his spot at the club, while he’s focused on longer-term ambitions having missed out on Champions League football with us this season.
The 26-year-old arrived from Borussia Dortmund in January as Unai Emery continues to mould the squad into his own, but there was early disappointment for the Dutch international after he was left out of our Champions League squad for the knockout stage.
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Despite that, he has continued to make a positive impact when involved domestically, and he made it two goals in two games this week after getting himself on the scoresheet in key wins over Brighton and Nottingham Forest to help fuel our push to secure a top-five finish in the Premier League this season.
Naturally, it would have been easy for Malen to feel snubbed and gone the other way in terms of his attitude after such a disappointing decision for him, but with his quality and experience, he still has a pivotal role to play for Villa this season and beyond, and that top-level mentality that he has developed through his career at club and international level was on show when speaking after our win over Forest this weekend.
“When you come to a new club, especially one going upwards, you have to fight for your place. It should be like that as well, it kept me motivated, of course it’s not always easy as you want to be on the pitch, but it kept me challenged and motivated,” he told VillaTV.
“It’s part of football, if you have to fight and earn it, it’s better than if they give it to you so I don’t mind it.
“Of course if you get that news it’s not nice [being left out of the Champions League squad], but at the end of the day, I’m here for longer than this Champions League run, hopefully we have one next year and upcoming years and I’m positive, so I don’t really think about that.”
That’s the culture and mentality that Emery is undoubtedly looking to build and develop at Villa right across the squad, and as he continues to add his own preferred players, it will hopefully continue and build on the progress that we’ve seen under his stewardship thus far.
With crunch encounters still to come in the Premier League and with our FA Cup semi-final still ahead later this month, Malen has a major part to play in how our season goes still, and while he’ll hopefully kick on after such a impactful week on a personal level, his drive and character will hopefully be influential in the dressing room too as we look to make this a memorable finish to the campaign.
As he notes above too though, this is a long-term project and challenge for him and the club, and so while he may well have missed out this time round, it’s hoped that he’s representing Villa at the top table in Europe next season.
