Opinion: It’s not just Hogan’s reputation that needs rescuing, but Clotet’s job security as well

Here we go then, he could be the answer we could be looking for.

Or he could just end up to be a ‘Villa reject’ and be tarnished as nothing but that whenever his name is brought up at St Andrew’s in the future, and given my views on the matter, it won’t surprise you to know that I’m leaning more towards the latter. But I’m happy to be proven wrong.

After the Blues sealed the transfer of Scott Hogan from Aston Villa on Wednesday, he’s been busy getting used to his new surroundings, and more importantly his new boss.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game with Nottingham Forest, Blues boss Pep Clotet talked about what he can bring to the team, and that things are already looking promising on that particular front:

“Scott will give us more threat and he is a goalscorer, he has proven that. He looked very sharp in training and he showed us that he can finish chances very well. I am sure he will have a very positive impact on us. End of the day that’s what you want from your strikers: that they can be a threat for defenders and they give defenders the feeling that they can never be comfortable.”

If Hogan doesn’t come in and start producing the goals that the club desperately need, given that they have one of the worst goal tally’s in the division, then there could be trouble ahead, but not just for the loanee.

It might sound a bit harsh, but this really could be a make or break move for Clotet, so he has got to make sure he puts Hogan in a system that can get him the goals.

It’s no secret that the fans don’t exactly have the best of relationships with him at the moment, and if the club continue their bad slide down the table, then that pressure and bad feeling is only going to ramp up more and more as the season goes on.

So whether it be in support of Lukas Jutkiewicz, or instead of him in a rotational system, this could arguably be the most important move that Clotet makes in this transfer window.

Because if he doesn’t get it right, with the board’s history of managers, he might not be around to see another one.