Birmingham City had more success than Aston Villa with £12m star | OneFootball

Hogan enjoyed a more successful spell in B9 instead of B6

There are many players who have crossed the Second City divide between Birmingham City and Aston Villa, with many leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of one set of supporters, before being endeared by their rival fanbase.

Craig and Gary Gardner, Jota and Curtis Davies are just a handful of examples who join EFL journeyman Scott Hogan on the list of players to do just that in recent times, with the experienced forward enduring mixed fortunes across the city despite both clubs being in a contrasting set of circumstances.

That has remained to this day as Villa are now looking to regain their place in the UEFA Champions League for a second successive season, whilst Blues have restored the divisional gap between the two sides back to one after their League One-winning campaign was recently confirmed.

Despite an upward trajectory, those in the Holte End continue to remember those who donned the Claret and Blue during the club's three-year Championship stint with plenty of fondness, although the same can't be said for Hogan, who enjoyed a more fruitful spell in front of goal at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

After beginning his career in the Non-League scene before scoring 19 times in just 40 appearances for Rochdale, Hogan was snapped up by Brentford for a reported £750,000 in 2014.

The striker's spell at Griffin Park was extremely mixed after suffering three major injuries, including an ACL issue, before eventually making his full Championship breakthrough in 2016/17, which was also Villa's first season of second-tier football since 1988.

Hogan netted 14 times in 25 appearances for the Bees, which included a hat-trick in a 5-0 victory over Preston North End, and with Villa looking to make a late run for the play-offs after Steve Bruce's appointment, the high-spending club would strike a deal worth up to £12m to sign the Republic of Ireland international on a four-and-a-half year contract.

"It all happened quite quickly and now I'm looking forward to meeting my new team-mates tomorrow and beginning a new chapter in my career," the striker said.

His first six months at Villa Park yielded one goal as the club finished 13th, before failing to make the strongest of impacts during his first full season in B6 despite facing competition from Jonathan Kodjia and Keinan Davis.

Hogan netted six times as Villa made the Championship play-off final, starting just 19 times in the league, with five of those strikes coming in as many games as Bruce's men recorded seven straight victories.

The 2018/19 season would prove to be extremely frustrating for the 12-time international despite featuring on the books of two promotion-winning sides in Villa and Sheffield United, scoring just twice in 15 appearances across the campaign, although the second of those came in the Blades' promotion-winning encounter against Ipswich Town at Bramall Lane.

After the B6 outfit secured promotion to the Premier League, Hogan found himself even further down the pecking order before an unsuccessful loan stint at Stoke City, eventually moving across Birmingham to St Andrew's on an initial loan deal under Pep Clotet.

Scott Hogan's Birmingham City spell was more fruitful

The Salford-born man couldn't have asked for a better start in Small Heath as he netted on debut in a 2-1 success over Nottingham Forest before going on to score six times in the following seven games.

Blues finished 20th in Clotet's only season in charge, before Hogan signed a permanent deal until 2024 with the club, going on to score seven times in his first full season.

During Lee Bowyer's only 46-game season in charge, Hogan then hit double figures for the first time since 2016/17 with 10, ending the season as Birmingham's top scorer, with the standout moment of his campaign being a brace in a 5-0 rout against play-off semi-finalists Luton Town at Kenilworth Road.

The striker continued as Blues' main focal point as John Eustace arrived, netting the first goal of his tenure in a 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town, before the defining moment of his time at St Andrew's came through a memorable hat-trick in a five-goal thriller against local rivals West Brom at The Hawthorns.

However, those two strong seasons would prove to be the peak of his career in B9 as, thanks to the arrivals of eventual club-record signing Jay Stansfield and Tyler Roberts following Knighthead Capital Management's takeover, Hogan would only feature 26 times during a chaotic relegation season which took place under six permanent or temporary managers, with the bulk of his appearances coming under Eustace and Wayne Rooney.

The last of the frontman's 36 strikes in royal blue came in August 2023 in a 2-1 win over Plymouth Argyle, before he was one of several long-serving players who would be released in May 2024.