Stadium: Villa Park (capacity: 42,682)
Manager: Tim Sherwood (2nd season)
Nickname: Villans
2014-15 Record: 38 points (10-8-20), 17th place in the Premier League
20 Premier League Previews In 20(ish) Days: Aston Villa
No club in the last several years has fallen farther, yet still remained in the Premier League as Aston Villa has.
The Birmingham based club has not been relegated from the Premier League since its formation in 1992 and they were one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888. The Villans have a rich history, mainly before the Premier League’s formation with their most recent league title coming in 1981 in the old First Division and a European Cup title in 1982.
The most recent senior trophy was a League Cup title in 1996 and the past several years have not been kind. The last time the Villans finished in the top half of the Premier League was 2010-11 when they finished 9th place and since then they have not finished above 15th.
Really Aston Villa has been teetering on the brink of disaster now for a few years and none of this is helped by the fact that American owner Randy Lerner has been looking to sell the club for over a year now. They’ve spent enough money to put a team on the field that will survive the Premier League, but that’s it. And it was a team last season that could not score a goal to save its life.
Despite having Belgian international striker Christian Benteke, who led Villa with 15 goals in all competitions, last year’s team finished tied for dead last in Premier League goals with 31. More importantly though they were an unwatchable, turgid mess until February when Paul Lambert was sacked and Tim Sherwood was brought in.
The move made perfect sense as the animated Sherwood was better than he got credit for in 5 months at Tottenham Hotspurs from December 2013 to May 2014. Sherwood, the former Tottenham U21 team coach, was asked to replace Andres Villas-Boas and won 50% of his games leading Spurs to a 6th place finish in the Premier League. That still wasn’t enough for Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy and Sherwood was sacked at the end of the season.
Back to Villa now, Sherwood succeeded in getting the Villans playing somewhat more exciting football and even exacted some revenge on his former employer, defeating Tottenham 1-0 on the road. Also, in what otherwise would have been another forgettable year Sherwood won three straight matches in the FA Cup, including a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the semifinals at Wembley Stadiu,, to reach the finals. The fact that Arsenal defeated Villa 4-0 in the final should not overshadow the joy of an inspired cup run.
Sherwood was also able to get the Villans playing just well enough, with wins in May over West Ham (1-0) and Everton (3-2) essentially securing their survival in the Premier League.
New Faces: Scott Sinclair- winger (Manchester City), Micah Richards- right back (Manchester City), Idrissa Gueye- defensive midfielder (LOSC Lille), Jordan Amavi- left back (Nice), Jordan Ayew- striker (Lorient), José Ángel Crespo- left/right back (Córdoba), Mark Bunn- goalkeeper (Norwich City)
Villa had their fair share of departures, which I will get to in the next section, but the club has at least made an effort to bring in a combination of proven Premier League experience and promising young French talent.
Scott Sinclair never was able to get a consistent run in the 1st team at Manchester City, making only 19 total appearances from 2012-15 with the Sky Blues and going out on loan the last two seasons to West Brom and Villa. Last season Sinclair made 12 appearances in all competitions and scored 3 goals after joining the Villans on loan at the end of January.
Sinclair’s former Manchester City teammate Micah Richards also had not featured consistently in recent years and had only made 19 total appearances in the last 3 seasons. Richards spent last season on loan in the Italian Serie A at Fiorentina, but only made 10 league appearances there. Neither Sinclair nor Richards have played much 1st team football recently, but both are still well under 30 and are Premier League quality players if not the quality required by Manchester City.
While Sinclair and Richards are low risk, low reward investments Villa also signed a trio of French/African players from Ligue 1. This trio are all 25 years old or younger and have considerably higher upside. Senegalese defensive midfielder Idrissa Gueye is probably the safest bet, as he made 176 appearances from 2010-15 for LOSC Lille. Gueye also has 25 caps for the Senegal national team and represented his country in the 2012 Olympics and the 2015 African Cup of Nations.
Jordan Ayew, who had a career best 13 goals in 28 total appearances for FC Lorient last year may have the most potential of the trio. Ayew has just started to emerge as a consistent goal scoring threat, but he’s been playing 1st team football in Ligue 1 since he was a teenager. He has made an extraordinary number of senior appearances (193) for a player who is only 23 years old. In addition he has 8 goals in 28 appearances for the Ghana national team.
The biggest unknown is Jordan Amavi, who’s also the youngest (21) player of the trio. But Amavi made 55 total appearances with Nice from 2013-15, which is no small amount of 1st team football for such a young player.
Villa spent around £27 million in transfer fees for the trio, which could end up being a bargain if they all live up to their potential and adjust to the speed and physicality of the Premier League.
Familiar Faces: Alan Hutton- right back (1 goal in 34 appearances), Ciaran Clark- centre back (1 goal in 29 appearances), Ashley Westwood- central midfielder (31 appearances), Gabriel Agbonlahor- striker/winger (6 goals in 32 appearances), Brad Guzan- goalkeeper (34 appearances)
So let’s first talk about who is not with Villa, because that’s been a dominant theme this offseason. In a move that has been looming the last season or so, Liverpool paid £32.5 million and signed Christian Benteke. While Benteke is quite a talented striker, I think Liverpool grossly overpaid for a player who is good but not worth that kind of money.
Fabian Delph’s departure on the other hand was a little bit more unexpected and a lot more bizarre. Initially after it was reported Delph had agreed to move to Manchester City on an £8 million transfer, he had a change of heart and publicly stated he would stay and be the captain at Villa. But then six days later Delph officially joined Manchester City in a surreal about face. This has certainly made City’s November 7th match at Villa appointment viewing and if I was City manager Manuel Pellegrini I would not let Delph anywhere near the pitch at Villa Park.
Also, striker Andi Weimann was sold to Championship side Derby County for £2.75 million.
Gabriel Agbonlahor who is a product of the Aston Villa youth system was hardly a prolific striker a year ago (6 goals), but he’s the closest thing to a proven returning goal scorer on the team. My biggest concern with Villa staying above the relegation zone is they lack a proven goal scorer at this level right now.
The midfield is a little more experienced and another homegrown Villa player, 19 year old Jack Grealish, might be the most promising young player on the team. Grealish started to get 1st team experience after Sherwood took over, including appearances in the FA Cup final and semifinal matches.
Ashley Westwood has made 95 appearances since joining Villa in 2012 and while he is not a prolific scorer (18 career goals), he operates more as a deep-lying central midfielder. Carlos Sanchez, a Colombian international, made 32 appearances after joining last year but he is more of a tough defensive midfielder.
The defense does return Aly Cissokho, Scottish international Alan Hutton and Irish international Ciaran Clark but that defense was inconsistent at best even after Tim Sherwood took over. The first choice goalkeeper, American Brad Guzan, did little to help his case with gaffes like this one against Manchester City (LINK!). Guzan actually lost his 1st team place to the now-departed Shay Given at the end of last season.
Completely Unscientific, Somewhat Unbiased Prediction: 15th place
Like when I previewed Leicester City I foresee a fair amount of variability with Villa. They could very easily exceed my above prediction or they could completely crash and burn when their lack of proven goal scoring threats.
I believe Tim Sherwood has gotten the most out of both Aston Villa and Tottenham in his brief stints at both clubs, but we have not seen what he can do over a longer period of time. Sherwood was incredibly successful as a U21 coach at Tottenham, but this is a much higher level of football. There’s also the concern that a combustible personality like Tim Sherwood will you know: combust.
The trio of players Villa signed from Ligue 1 are all extremely promising, but they’re going to be asked to contribute a lot on a team that will likely be in the middle of a relegation fight.
Any finish between 15th and 20th place is entirely possible here, but I have a lot more faith in Tim Sherwood to get Villa playing exciting and effective football than I did in his predecessor Paul Lambert.
