Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard has ousted Bertrand Traore from the first-team squad, according to Ashley Preece of The Birmingham Mail. 

The lowdown

Villa paid £17m to sign Traore from Ligue 1 outfit Lyon in September 2020, but two years on, it looks like his time with the Midlands club could be up.

Traore only made one Premier League start last season, registering nine appearances and a mere 213 minutes of action overall. That was partly a result of injury, but he rarely featured even when available (via Transfermarkt).

The winger is under contract at Villa Park for another two years and is thought to be the sixth-highest earner at the club on a salary of £78,000 per week.

The latest

Preece took to Twitter to share 'a bit of an AVFC team news round up'.

He revealed that 'Bertrand Traore has been told to train with the under-23s', adding in the attached article that right-back Frederic Guilbert has also been 'banished' from the first team.

The verdict

It's no surprise that Gerrard would like to offload Traore, who is proving to be a financial drain for Villa, taking home more than £4m per year without really contributing on the pitch.

The former Chelsea man actually enjoyed quite a good first season at Villa Park, scoring seven league goals and providing seven assists. That form had then-manager Dean Smith calling him a 'marvellous technician' and predicting that there were 'better things' to come, but things have tailed off sharply since.

The fact that Traore has been ejected from the main group could potentially suggest that Gerrard is unhappy with the 26-year-old's attitude in training.

It has been suggested that the Burkina Faso international could return to Lyon, and that would enable a frustrated Villa to cut their losses on him.