Thankful Bertrand Traore has waxed lyrical about Unai Emery's Aston Villa impact after revealing his woes under the guidance of Steven Gerrard.
The 27-year-old winger was a peripheral figure under the former Rangers manager's watch and Gerrard allowed the Burkina Faso international to join Istanbul on loan. But the Liverpool legend exited stage left in October amid a rotten Villa run and now Traore is back and thriving after his stunning late winner downed Leicester with Villans' dreaming of Europe.
And Traore admits he's bursting with confidence working with Emery after enduring a rocky relationship with Gerrard during his ill-fated 11-month stay in the West Midlands. Speaking after his heroics against the Foxes, the former Lyon man said: “Some things I can’t control like injuries and other things. Under the previous manager I was pulled out of the first-team squad and went training for two weeks with the under-23s before I went out on loan. It was really frustrating for me.
"But that is behind me now and I am just focused on what I have to do on the pitch to try to help the team and give love to the fans.
"It feels good for me now because I travelled a lot the last two seasons with a lot of injuries and had some trouble with the previous manager. The new manager gave me a new chance. I came back from my loan injured and had to work hard to get fit and then the team was doing well.
"I have to work hard to get back in the team but I think I am in a good place and will keep on working hard. This manager knows about me from before when I played against his teams a lot of time. He believes in me and I think he is on my side and I want to give back so he doesn’t believe in me for nothing.”
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