Former Aston Villa, Plymouth Argyle and Sheffield United star retires at 33

Former Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane has hung up his boots mid-season to focus on a new role at current club Barnsley.

The 33-year-old played a vital role in Villa’s promotion to the Premier League in 2019 as he scored seven goals and made 12 assists in 43 Championship matches throughout that famous campaign. The season before was just as strong, too, as he contributed 11 goals and two assists in 41 league games.

Hourihane had great success in League One and League Two with Plymouth Argyle and Barnsley before he joined Villa, establishing himself as a key player for three seasons at each. As his time at Villa came to an end, Hourihane enjoyed loan spells at Swansea City and Sheffield United before eventually leaving for Derby County in 2022.

Two brilliant years at Pride Park with 13 goals and 19 assists in 98 games then came to a close as Hourihane re-joined Barnsley for a romantic second spell at the club as a player-coach. That hasn’t quite worked out as expected for the Irishman, however, as he’s not been able to balance the two as best as hoped.

To fix that issue, Hourihane has decided to retire from playing and instead throw absolutely everything into coaching, becoming the new Assistant Head Coach. It’s hoped the decision will have a positive influence on Barnsley as the Tykes aim for a top-six finish in the English third tier.

“It's very disappointing that I'm at this stage after all the years," Hourihane admitted. "It's a little bit emotional thinking about all the fond memories and how quick the years have gone. I'm very fortunate to have done oaky in the career I've had and it's huge excitement at the same time.

“I'm very fortunate to have been given this role to go straight from retiring into the role I've been given. I can only thank Neerav (Parekh, the chairman), Mladen (Sormaz, the sporting director), Darrell (Clarke, head coach), of course, for trusting me in this role to hit it head on."