Leeds United and Fulham will be the envy of Aston Villa when it comes to EFL icon: View | OneFootball

Ross McCormack is certainly a modern-day EFL cult hero who scored plenty of goals and provided supporters of Leeds United and Fulham with happy memories, but one team in particular will not have fond memories of the Scotsman.

In 2016, Aston Villa, who had just been relegated from the Premier League, signed the striker from Fulham for a fee of £12million, and to say that Villa didn't get their monies worth would be a bit of an understatement.

The former Rangers man was a disaster both on and off the pitch at Villa Park, and whilst clubs like Leeds and Fulham will have fond memories of McCormack, Aston Villa supporters will have anything but.

It was the perfect example of the wrong player at the wrong club, and Villa supporters could scarcely believe that this was the same player who had scored goals for fun at other Championship sides.

Ross McCormack's time at Aston Villa was an absolute disaster

Playing in a side that had just been relegated from the Premier League and with bags of Championship experience, the expectation was that McCormack would hit the ground running after signing a three-year deal with Villa, but it wasn't to be.

The striker made 18 appearances in all competitions during the first-half of the 2016/17 season, but scored just three times, a really disappointing return given his EFL pedigree.

However, it was off the field where things were arguably even worse for the Scotsman, and after he missed training due to an alleged faulty electric gate at home, it led to Steve Bruce calling him out in the press for his poor attitude.

He was subsequently loaned to Nottingham Forest for the rest of the season, but he also flopped at the City Ground, scoring just once.

McCormack's Aston Villa spell saw just two further appearances, both coming in the early rounds of the 2017/18 League Cup, before he was loaned to Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners in Australia, and had a spell with Motherwell in Scotland, before being released in 2019.

He left the club having made 24 appearances, and scored three goals. Having paid a £12million transfer fee, it meant Villa had paid £500,000 for every appearance and £4million a goal - an absolute disaster of a move.

Having been such a success with both Leeds and Fulham, Villa won't have believed their luck with the version of McCormack they had.

McCormack spent four years at Leeds between 2010 and 2014, and scored 58 goals in 157 appearances, also registering 31 assists, taking his tally to 89 goal involvements - a very impressive return.

His move to Fulham in 2014 saw Leeds receive a transfer fee of £11million, a huge amount of money ten years ago for a Championship striker, and a huge sum of money for Leeds to use and reinvest when they saw fit.

He was also very prolific during his time at Craven Cottage, and he scored 42 times and registered 22 assists in just 100 games for the Cottagers. These are incredible stats, and you can see why Villa decided to fork out £12million for him.

Both Fulham and Leeds saw the best of McCormack on the pitch, and he also made both clubs a lot of money when he left.

Villa didn't see anything near the striker's best, and he also wasted a lot of the club's money. Aston Villa could definitely be forgiven for looking at Leeds and Fulham with envy after McCormack's successful spells there.