However, the 2000-2001 season will act as a make-or-break deadline for one of Villa`s most exciting youth products in many years, following John Gregory`s comments regarding Hendrie`s position at the Midlands club.
The outspoken Villa manager has gone public and stated that the prodigious youngster has just one season to prove himself in a claret and blue shirt following an injury-hit 1999-2000 campaign. The former Wycombe boss was also angered by Hendrie`s seeming immaturity after the 23-year-old narrowly cheated death when crashing his sports car earlier this month.
An angered Gregory commented that: "Lee has no further room for error from now on....his career is in danger of going right off the rails. He has one season to deliver or I will buy someone to replace him."
The young Brummie certainly made quite an impact on his arrival into the first team near the end of the 1997-98 season. Hendrie helped Villa to win 10 of their last 15 games, scoring three goals in the process, and played an important part in securing Villa`s seventh place finish.
In the 1998-99 season, Villa and Hendrie went one better as the attacking midfielder appeared in all but two matches, until an unfortunate injury sustained against Liverpool kept him out for the rest of the season. Gregory`s side had topped the Premiership going into the New Year and Hendrie was undoubtedly an integral part of that success.
The Birmingham-born player fired in 34 efforts and racked up three goals during that 1998-99 campaign as he proved to be an extremely forward-thinking and combative midfielder. Compare this to 1999-2000 where Hendrie only managed 19 shots and a solitary goal away to doomed Wimbledon, and it is easy to understand why Gregory has issued this latest ultimatum.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment for Villa fans would be Hendrie`s lack of creativity in 1999-2000. The youngster failed to provide a single goal assist last term. During the previous season, Hendrie had supplied an impressive six assists for his team-mates.
In addition, the Villans star appeared to be more enthusiastic during his first full season in the Midlands, competing for over 100 tackles in 1998-99 and winning exactly half of them. That figure plummeted last term and even taking into account Hendrie`s injury in the middle of the season, 44 challenges represents a pretty sorry return for the England international.
This injury sustained in December last year may account for much of his dip in form on Hendrie`s return three months later, but Gregory has made sure that the midfielder is well aware that his place in the team is at risk if this continues. The 2000-01 season is not going to be easy for an under-pressure player in an under-fire team, but Hendrie has proven in the past that he has the raw talent to succeed at the highest level. Now he just has to prove that to Gregory.
