The former Aston Villa and Fulham man recalled how the criticism of moving to Bodymoor Heath would not hurt his pride.
Aston Villa and Fulham will be locking horns this weekend. Unai Emery’s side is set to return with Switzerland international Johan Manzambi in the starting XI. Prior to the 21-year-old midfielder, there was one Swiss player who used to play for both the Villans and Cottagers. He was the former defender, Phillipe Senderos.
He joined The Lions after the 2014 FIFA World Cup on free transfer after his contract with Fulham was not extended. Unfortunately, the fans did not appear to fancy the management’s plan to sign the injury-prone defender. Senderos did not seem to take it lightly. The former Arsenal man shared his view towards the fans cynicism as reported in Birmingham mail.
“I think everyone deserves respect and credit for what they do. You can’t get to the Premier League and stay there for a long time without hard work and dedication. But personally it’s not about my pride or needing to get praise to feel good about myself.
“I really try not to let other people’s opinions affect my performances because I know what I’ve done in my career. “
Initially, the ex-centre back did manage to prove his critics wrong as he became the first choice in Villa’s starting lineup in the first seven games in the 2014/15 campaign. He played for 90 minutes in those games and helped his team to clinch three wins plus one draw, including a narrow victory over Liverpool.
Unfortunately, he suffered thigh strain leading to his hamstring injury during the international break when playing for Switzerland in EURO 2016 qualifiers against Slovenia. Such forced him to be sidelined for two games.
He was back in the team while Villa was beaten to Spurs on matchday 10 and made a cameo appearance in the following game versus West Ham. Sadly, he was injured again while training for international fixtures. It really upset Villa boss at that time, Paul Lambert, as it kept him out of the squad almost till the end of the season.
Senderos’s career seemed to be entangled with injuries. He had suffered a number of injuries since he moved to Arsenal. During his stint in Emirates, Senderos missed 13 games. It became worse in his later years.
The Swiss man was ruled out for 320 days while playing for Fulham due to various injuries from achilles tendon rupture, hip and groin injury (twice), plus broken foot. He was absent for 55 games with the Cottagers. Then, while playing for Valencia, he was sidelined for 23 days and unavailable for five games with Los Ches.
In the West Midlands, Senderos was on the sideline for 188 days and missed 33 games. It was probably the reason why he was omitted by Lambert’s successor, Tim Sherwood, in the 2015/16 squad. Overall, he only featured in 10 games with The Clarets and Blue, nine with the first team and one match with the reserve team, before he switched sides to Grasshopper Zurich in January 2015.
Sadly, his injuries continued to haunt him while playing at the top level, but not so much when he was with his team on his home soil, either with Servette in his early career or with Zurich.
When he signed for Glasgow Rangers in the 2016/17, he was benched for 59 days and missed nine games due to his knee problem. It even carried on ruining his career when he opted to play for MLS side, Houston Dynamo. He was unavailable for 17 games there because of muscle injury (twice) and another hamstring injury.
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