Aston Villa finally returned to the Premier League in the summer of 2019 after they spent three seasons down in the Championship following their relegation to the second tier in 2016.
The Villans decided to bring lifelong fan Dean Smith to the club to lead their promotion charge towards the start of the 2018/19 campaign, and he led the team back to the top-flight via the play-offs, with the likes of Jack Grealish and Tammy Abraham at his disposal.
Villa made a number of signings throughout that season in an attempt to win promotion back to the big time, including current first-team star John McGinn.
However, not all of their additions during that campaign turned out to be a success on the pitch, as goalkeepers Orjan Nyland and Lovre Kalinic both failed to impress.
How much Villa paid to sign Lovre Kalinic
After Nyland started 23 of the club's Championship matches during the first half of the 2018/19 campaign and saved 67% of the shots on his goal, Villa decided to go in a new direction between the sticks.
Smith swooped to sign Croatian shot-stopper Kalinic from Belgian side Gent for a whopping fee of £7m during the January transfer window in 2019, and this move turned out to be a nightmare.
That came after the giant had kept three clean sheets and conceded 24 goals in 14 Pro League appearances during the first half of the term for his former club.
He had kept 29 clean sheets in 79 matches for Gent in total during his time with Genk, and his performances in Belgium were seemingly good enough to convince Villa that there was value in spending a significant fee – in Championship terms – to bring him in to replace Nyland.
Unfortunately, for all parties involved, Kalinic did not hit the ground running in England as he struggled badly in the second tier before being displaced by Jed Steer.
The left-footed shot-stopper started seven matches in the Championship and only saved 61% of the shots against his goal, which was 6% lower than Nyland's success rate.
He conceded a whopping 12 goals in those seven games, which illustrates how weak his displays were between the sticks, and struggled in possession with a pass success rate of 49%.
As you can see in the chart above, Kalinic did not stack up well against his positional peers in the Championship during the 2018/19 campaign.
He fell short when it came to stopping crosses, which meant that the goalkeeper did not alleviate much pressure off his defence, and saving shots – two of the core elements of goalkeeping.
The Croatian flop also ranked within the bottom 8% of Championship goalkeepers for defensive actions outside his penalty area (0.31) per 90, which shows that the former Gent star was not a proactive player who came out to bail out his backline on a regular basis when the ball was played in behind.
How much did Lovre Kalinic earn at Aston Villa
According to Spotrac, Kalinic earned roughly £817k-per-year throughout his time at the club. However, he was not always with Villa before his permanent exit in 2022.
The Smith flop spent the first year with the Villans, which suggests that the side paid the full £817k of wages during that period, but he was then sent out on loan to Toulouse for the second half of the 2020/21 campaign, and it remains unclear as to how much of his wages they contributed to.
He then spent the next six months with Villa before going out on loan to Hajduk Split. This means that the shot-stopper may have earned around £408k between his loans with Toulouse and Split.
The 33-year-old dud was on loan to the Croatian side for 18 months before the Villans opted to allow him to join them on a permanent basis on a free transfer in 2022, despite his contract in England still having 12 months left to run on it at the time.
Given that it is unclear how much of his wages Split and Toulouse covered, Villa paid Kalinic a minimum of £1.25m in wages during his time with the club before letting him leave for nothing.
This means that the goalkeeper drained them of at least £8.25m, and only made eight competitive appearances for the first-team, without making a positive impact on the pitch, which is why Smith had a mare with that signing.
The fee Villa paid for John McGinn
Meanwhile, Villa swooped to sign Scottish central midfielder McGinn from Hibernian during the 2018/19 campaign for a reported fee of £2.75m on a four-year contract.
Signed in the same season as Kalinic, the impressive maestro has provided far more value for money over the years as he has established himself as a regular starter for the club over a number of seasons, despite being signed for £4.25m less than the shot-stopper.
McGinn started 39 of Villa's matches in the Championship as they won promotion to the Premier League that term, and contributed with six goals and nine assists from the middle of the park.
Since the club's ascent to the top-flight, the left-footed dynamo has made 162 appearances for the club at the top level of English football, with 16 goals and 19 assists to his name to date.
This season, the 29-year-old star has been an influential figure in midfield for Unai Emery's side as they compete to secure Champions League football for the 2024/25 campaign.
Appearances
28
Starts
28
Goals
Six
Big chances created
Nine
Assists
Three
Dribbles completed
43
Stats via Sofascore
As you can see in the table above, the Scotland international has provided a big threat at the top end of the pitch with his quality as a scorer and a creator from midfield.
In fact, McGinn has a reason to be frustrated with his teammates as they have not made the most of his outstanding creativity, with three goals scored from the nine 'big chances' that he has created for his fellow attackers.
Overall, the Scottish ace has been a fantastic signing for Villa as he remains a key player for the club almost six years on from his arrival in 2018, whilst Kalinic barely got on the pitch before being let go for nothing after being brought in for more money than McGinn under Smith.