Aston Villa signed Nottingham Forest's captain - now he's a lawn-care entrepreneur | OneFootball

Henri Lansbury now has an intriguing life away from the football pitch

There are several instances in football where a player has been tipped for an extremely exciting and successful career, but in reality things have panned out rather differently.

Henri Lansbury will certainly feel he belongs in said category after there were plenty of high hopes for the midfielder as he progressed through Arsenal's youth ranks during the Gunners' early years at the Emirates Stadium.

However, opportunities in North London proved extremely hard to come by, but in fairness, the 35-year-old still went on to have an extremely respectable career, with two of his later high-profile clubs being Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest, albeit the landscape of the Villa Park and City Ground outfits were extremely different to current times.

That said, despite providing supporters with the occasional memorable moment, the England youth international has certainly made plenty of headlines since he opted to retire, which, in some ways, links back to his boyhood club in the capital.

Henri Lansbury was tipped for big breakthrough at Arsenal before respectable EFL career

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Having initially started out in Norwich City's academy, Lansbury was poached by Arsenal in 1999 at the age of just nine, eventually rising through the youth ranks for an eight-year period whilst Arsene Wenger's senior side enjoyed strong success in the Premier League.

With players in his age group including former Southampton and eventual England star, Theo Walcott, Lansbury's senior bow came in an EFL Cup tie against Sheffield United in 2007, but it would be just one of eight senior appearances he made for the Gunners despite his French boss stating in 2010: "He will be a big player for me."

That was in the thick of the midfielder's second loan to the Championship with Watford, having previously had a spell at Scunthorpe United whilst also helping Arsenal win the 2008 FA Youth Cup, defeating Liverpool 4-1 in the final.

Nottingham Forest supporters saw the best version of Henri Lansbury

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Amid his brief cameo appearances for Arsenal, Lansbury then returned to Norwich on loan for the majority of the 2010/11 season, which saw the Canaries achieve back-to-back promotions under Paul Lambert, whilst he also received a nomination for the Championship's Young Player of the Season.

He then made 24 appearances on loan with West Ham United as the Hammers also tasted promotion to the top-flight under Sam Allardyce, although the midfielder wouldn't get on the pitch in the play-off final success over Blackpool, before Forest certainly saw his best years between August 2012 and January 2017.

Having made 150 appearances for the East Midlands side in said four-and-a-half year period, scoring 33 times and providing 20 assists, Lansbury revealed that he had no regrets over the decision, whilst in 2023, it also emerged that the midfielder overcame testicular cancer in the 2016/17 season, during which Forest rejected a £2.5m+ bid from bitter rivals, Derby County, before accepting a £3m deal with Villa for his services.

Henri Lansbury's Aston Villa spell was full of mixed fortunes

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Villa's three-year spell in the Championship was one of extremely mixed fortunes, and the same can be said for Lansbury's individual spell in B6.

Having signed under Steve Bruce, he would miss just two of his first 18 matches at the club, although his gametime would significantly diminish in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 campaigns as Villa suffered initial play-off heartbreak before enjoying Wembley success over Derby in May 2019.

Lansbury made just three Championship appearances in the club's promotion campaign, with one of those being a substitute cameo in a Second City derby triumph over Birmingham City, before making just 10 appearances at Premier League level as he fell behind the likes of Conor Hourihane, John McGinn and Marvelous Nakamba in the pecking order.

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After leaving Villa in January 2021, Lansbury then had a short stint at Bristol City before signing for Luton Town, where two viral incidents involving the experienced figure surfaced during his spell at Kenilworth Road, which ended in promotion through the play-offs.

The first of those saw Lansbury generate headlines for a swipe at Ryan Manning against Swansea City after the Irish defender nudged the ball away from his path in a set-piece situation, whilst 12 months later, after a stunning strike in a 2-0 win over Hull City, he brought out a lawnmower celebration, referencing what has now become his daily life for lawn care firm, Grass Gains.

"I thought, 'Everyone's got to have this for their garden.' From there it built up to every garden centre and we're just trying to build, build, build. Now I play golf, I'm going to speak to all the greenkeepers trying to plug them Grass Gains!," he later revealed.

"It's basically a professional product that all the stadiums are using, but in the retail market. We do little orders into Arsenal now as well."