Conor Hourihane has traveled a long road to the Premier League.
A youth career at Sunderland brought him to Ipswich Town but he made zero appearances for Roy Keane's side and eventually moved on to Plymouth Argyle in League Two where he finally found first team football.
After three years with Argyle in League Two, he spent three years with Barnsley where he helped the club to the Championship in his second season.
In 2017 Aston Villa came calling and from there he spent two-and-a-half seasons with the Villians before winning promotion to the top tier of English football last season.
Hourihane has literally worked his way up through all four professional English leagues and the goal was always to play in the Premier League.
The Cork native had the top flight circled as his destination from as early as 2014 when he got into an argument with a Plymouth fan that told him the Premier League was beyond his capabilities.
After making his Premier League debut against Tottenham on Saturday, Hourihane was quick to remind the fan just how far he's come over the past five years.
https://twitter.com/ConorHourihane/status/1160474877578612739
Hourihane enters the season in good form after scoring two free-kicks in Villa's final pre-season game against Bundesliga side RB Leipzig last week.
