Overhead kick brilliance still there! Alejandro Garnacho accused of believing own hype as ex-Man Utd & Chelsea star enters last-chance Premier League saloon at Aston Villa

That is because he tumbled down the pecking order at Old Trafford under Ruben Amorim and flopped at Chelsea on the back of a £40 million ($53m) transfer to Stamford Bridge. Just one eight-goal season was spent in west London before heading to Villa.

Unai Emery was prepared to take a calculated gamble on Garnacho, with there clearly a player there. At 22 years of age, the fleet-footed winger is still learning his trade and unlocking full potential.

There is, however, no ignoring the fact that said process has stalled of late. The Madrid-born forward, who missed out on a place in Argentina’s 2026 World Cup squad alongside Lionel Messi and Co, has looked short on confidence and belief for some time.

He may be stuck in his own head, with a meteoric rise to prominence having been enjoyed after becoming an FA Youth Cup winner in Manchester. Boyhood hero Cristiano Ronaldo was once a team-mate at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, but his career is quickly turning into a nightmare.

There is still plenty of time in which to turn things around, but is Garnacho running out of willing takers in England? When that question was put to Cole, the former Villa striker - who was speaking courtesy of LiveScore Bet - told GOAL: “The thing with young players, he showed great promise when he was at Manchester United. Young players need to be managed correctly.

“It seems to me that he's got carried away with himself and thought he was the finished article at a young age. I suggest the environment that you're in, if no one's taken a hold of what's going on in the background with these young players, they can get carried away. They manage themselves and they think they know what's best.

“I've got a son in football right now. Even me talking to them, I've got two boys actually. One's 15, one's 18, one's a pro, just made pro at Middlesbrough. So I know having a young, talented boy, sometimes they think they know it all at a certain stage. I was like that as well.

“You have to be quite delusional to be a footballer anyway. But sometimes you have to pull the reins in. And I think Garnacho, he falls under that banner where he can be a great player if he knuckles down and just focuses on football and leaves the stuff away from the pitch.

“Sometimes it only takes 6-12 months of just pure football, getting to learn the game, getting to learn who you're playing with, how can they get the best out of me and how can I get the best out of them. Just focusing on football, just football."

Cole added: “Careers like that are really easily rectifiable. But he needs to have the right voices around him to get to that next level. And I really do believe there is a player in there. We've seen it. We've seen that overhead kick years back with Manchester United. We need to see that again - those off-the-cuff, spontaneous shows of brilliance.

“I look at that and I think there's a player there and he's done some other stuff as well, not just that. But he needs a little bit of help and an arm around him. And I think if Emery has the patience to help him and then he's receiving the help, I think he can get back to it.

“But it has to come from him first. He needs to look at himself in the mirror and say, ‘what am I doing wrong and how can I get back to it?’ And hopefully he can. We saw Jadon Sancho as well. Jadon Sancho is another example. He went over there. He did try his best. I think he got injured at the wrong time. But football sometimes is all about luck and how the cookie crumbles.

“And if you are on the right side of wanting to make the best for yourself and getting better game by game, you've got to put the work in on the training field and show the manager how much you want to be there and get the work done.

“So it's not going to go in your favour all the time. But I just sense that he's got that little bit of a chip on his shoulder to say, ‘look what I've done, look where I've come from’. And it's not helped. I think he just needs to get back to ground zero and work his way up again.”

If Garnacho is feeling a little down on himself, with the praise that he once basked in slowly fading away, then only he can find a solution to those problems. As suggested by Cole, complete focus and unrelenting effort is required from this point.

Villa are yet to be convinced that he can scale those heights, with just 31 minutes of Premier League game time being seen across three substitute appearances this season, but they are crying out for attacking inspiration from somewhere and a loan star may yet rise again.