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| Fabian Delph was the subject of boos from Aston Villa fans on his return to the club with Man City |
VINCENT KOMPANY believes Fabian Delph will go from strength-to-strength for Manchester City after coming through his injury nightmare and a gauntlet of hate at former club Aston Villa.
Midfielder Delph received a hostile welcome back before, during and after Manchester City’s goal-less draw at Villa Park on Sunday.
Villa fans vented their anger on Delph who agreed to a £8m move to City in the summer, changed his mind and pledged his allegiance to Villa, then completed a controversial U-turn and moved to the Etihad a few days later.
Kompany believes Delph can now put the episode behind him now.
“It could have been worse!” he said. “It’s part of football and he’ll be able to move on now.
“He’s just a great, great lad to have around the team. He’s been great for Aston Villa as well and we’re just happy he’s playing for our team now.”
Before Sunday, Delph had only played 16 minutes of competitive action for City this season after suffering two hamstring injuries – one in his first pre-season game for the club in Australia and the other after just three minutes of England's Euro 2016 qualifier agianst Switzerland at Wembley in September.
He has missed 10 games already this season but after coming on for Yaya Toure against Villa, Delph is aiming for a belated lift-off to his City career.
And he hopes to improve his match fitness with appearances for England in their friendlies against Spain and France during the international break.
"It's been really difficult,” he admitted. “I had a lot of injury problems when I was younger but I seemed to have overcome them.
"This is the first time in four years that I've picked up niggles and that's been frustrating. But I'm finally back now, back fit. The medical team here have been unbelievable with me. Now I'm just ready to push on.
"I'm not 100% yet but I've come on in the last couple of games. Now I've got the international break and I'll hopefully get a couple of games there. And after that I'l be firing and ready to go for City.
"I always look forward to international duty, we've got two big games and I'm really excited about going there. Hopefully I can play a bit longer than I did in the last game [when he was injured]."
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| Vincent Kompany reckons Delph will go from strength-to-strength following the 0-0 draw at Villa Park |
Delph played down the negative reception at Villa Park but thanks City fans for backing him during the game.
"It was always going to be interesting for me coming back,” he added. “I've got to say the [City] fans gave me great support..
"We didn’t picked up the three points we came for but we didn’t lose the game either. We got a point and now we need to push on after the international break.
"We've got Liverpool in a couple of weeks. They're all huge games. We haven't managed to get three points at Villa but now we look forward and will try to win the next one."
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