John McGinn: I feared I wasn't good enough for Aston Villa

The 24-year-old midfielder has been a revelation since joining in a bargain £2.75million deal from Hibernian last summer.

McGinn scored six goals and racked up eight assists on Villa’s route to the play-off final, deservedly scooping both the supporters’ and players’ player of the year awards.

But the down-to-earth Scot initially doubted his ability to make an impact.

McGinn enjoyed a superb debut in Villa’s 3-2 win over Wigan last August but said: “When I signed I didn’t expect to be in right away.

“The manager (Steve Bruce) made me aware there were a lot of top midfield players here and that I had to prove myself.

“My first couple of days here weren’t great, in training I thought ‘I don’t know if I can compete here’.

“But the manager had the confidence to fling me in against Wigan and it went from there.”

McGinn admitted to being ‘gutted’ when Bruce was sacked by Villa in October after a poor run of results.

“Obviously people will have their own opinions but I was worried,” he said. “I thought ‘Is the new guy going to like me?’

“We were linked with Thierry Henry at the time and I didn’t know whether he liked Scottish players!”

Dean Smith was eventually named as Bruce’s replacement and McGinn continued: “I was intrigued and waiting to see what was to come when he (Smith) arrived.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous and anxious to see if I was his kind of player.

“My position changed slightly when he came in, I played a little bit higher up and after a couple of weeks he pulled me and said ‘I don’t think you realise how good you can be’ which was great to hear from a new manager.

“He said he was the first to admit he didn’t know a lot about me but assured me that I would be a big part of his plans. That was brilliant for me to hear that from him.”