A club exploited by the alleged villain (7)
I believe the answer is:
accused
'the alleged villain' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'a club exploited by' is the wordplay.
'club' becomes 'cc' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'exploited' becomes 'used' (synonyms).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a'+'cc'+'used'='ACCUSED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for accused that I've seen before include "Indicted" , "Blamed" , "Charged with an offence" , "The person in the dock" , "Person being charged" .)