Ron Vlaar averaged a tackle every two games for Aston Villa last season – worse than Mario Balotelli

Remember this?

https://twitter.com/FletchTM/status/523168172057165824 LOL. We could nearly just leave it there. Ron Vlaar was hot property last summer. He had a good World Cup, the Dutch manager took over United, the links were only natural - if ridiculous. He was never that big of a superstar at Aston Villa and his under-par 2014/15 season only proved that. Vlaar even lost the arm band when Paul Lambert got sacked in February and Tim Sherwood came in to rescue the club's season. But, whilst some of the Villa Park faithful would testify that their centre back was never what the hype and paper talk suggested, even the most cynical wouldn't have expected these sort of stats. Opta stats from Oulala.com show just ineffective the Netherlands international was last season. He averaged 0.55 tackles per game in the Premier League. That's right: Ron Vlaar was making a tackle every two games for Villa in the league. His stats were that shocking that even Mario Balotelli was winning more tackles per game. Raheem Sterling too. And four other named attackers. Vlaar is now a free agent, his contract having expired as of today but, with form like this, he might not have a crowd of clubs lining up for his signature. Especially not Manchester United. So... where did we land on that £12m?