If you can cast your minds back to January 2017, it was a time when Slaven Bilic was embarking on sorting his under-performing squad out that was in desperate need of goals despite the efforts of top-scorer Michail Antonio.
One of the players the manager wanted to bring in during the winter window was then-Brentford striker Scott Hogan, who had been banging in the goals in the Championship for Dean Smith's side, knocking in 14 in 26 games in the first half of the season.
That had alerted the Hammers, and others, to the striker but it was West Ham who made the biggest play for the Republic of Ireland international.
Bilic saw three bids, the last one around £12m, rejected by Brentford who were demanded £15m to sign Hogan. The Hammers wouldn't go any higher but he would eventually depart Griffin Park anyway, joining Aston Villa who offered less than the Hammers.
Bilic said after pulling out of a move for the player: "He [Scott] is a good player, of course he is a good player. We watched him for many, many games.
"But I believe that we have really good strikers in our squad and that's why we won't have a Hogan deal.
"Definitely a good player, good age and scoring goals in the Championship. It's not a question of him, it's a question of what we've already got in the squad. "
Bilic was banking on Diafra Sakho making a comeback form injury that he never did, Andre Ayew's return from the Africa Cup of Nations and Andy Carroll staying fit - which he didn't.
But since then, it has gone very downhill for Hogan. He has turned out for the Villains 69 times, scoring nine goals in the last two and a half years.
The striker made just 15 appearances for Villa this season, despite Smith now being his boss at Villa Park and was sent out to Sheffield United on loan on deadline day in January.
His two goals in the 2018/19 season came for the Blades as they sealed promotion back to the top flight but he struggled for game time as well, only appearing in eight of 17 potential games.
Now, our friends at Mirror Football are reporting that Hogan will be off from Villa Park this summer and are bracing themselves to take a massive hit on Hogan who go a contractual pay-rise after Villa won the Championship play-offs in May and is now on around £40,000-a-week with two years left on his deal.
Villa don't want him, Sheffield United don't want him back and now Villa need to find a buyer before they have to keep on supplementing his wages.
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