Why Gabriel Agbonlahor has so much hatred for Roberto Di Matteo | OneFootball

Roberto Di Matteo only lasted 12 games at Aston Villa (winning just once), but that was long enough for Gabby Agbonlahor to hate the man forever.

Agbonlahor’s team-mate, Stiliyan Petrov, had been out of football for four years after battling from life-threatening acute leukaemia.

Despite battling back and getting himself back into shape, Di Matteo refused to give Petrov a new deal – something that will anger the retired striker for the rest of his days.

“I’ll hate him for the rest of my life for that,” he revealed to ThreesixtyTV. “Any other manager with a single bit of heart would have given him a pay-as-you-play [contract].

“There’s a month, or there’s six months, let’s see how you are. To be so ruthless and heartless to not even give him a chance, you know what I mean?

“Imagine you come back from that horrific disease, you’ve got yourself fit, you’ve lost all this weight that you’ve put on through your treatment.

“You’ve come back, you’ve done every run that the 19-year-olds have done in pre-season and you can’t give me anything? Do you know what I mean?”

Unfortunately, after being cut from the squad following a friendly match, Petrov wouldn’t find another club and retired from the game at age 36.