Is there any way back for Aston Villa? In May 2008, at the end of the year’s Premiership season, Randy Lerner’s Aston Villa finished sixth in the Barclays Premier League, and scored a total of 71 goals – their best return for a top flight campaign since winning the title back in 1981. Their manager at the time was Martin O’Neill. Is there any way back to those days?
O’Neill had coached Villa back to where many fans thought they belonged – a genuine, top six side with ability to seize points from those above them. Owner, Randy Lerner, also furnished his manager with considerable funds, and it looked like a partnership ready to blossom.
Yet, O’Neill, as canny and shrewd an operator as anyone in football, believed that for Villa to kick on and get better, even more money would be needed to truly compete. Lerner, no patsy himself when it came to business whilst building up a vast empire, decided enough was enough; O’Neill walked. Lerner eventually wanted rid of Villa, and the Midlands giants have never recovered since.
It may seem remiss to suggest that Aston Villa’s current problems can be traced back seven years – surely that has been ample time to get it right – but the fact remains that Villa, once again, to the agony of their long suffering fans, will face at least one more winter of discontent. Plus, the Groundhog Day of every match once more seeing them in the middle of a relegation dogfight sees no sign of ending.
Following the O’Neill era, Lerner certainly made one colossal error: hiring the unpopular Alex McLeish. This was almost a death warrant, and it is not far-fetched to suggest that the cauldron of hate-filled anxiety at Villa Park has never truly dissipated since those days.
Meanwhile, the other notable factor has been that, rightly or wrongly, the perception amongst fans is that, when Lerner snapped the purse tightly shut after O’Neill, the subsequent seasons have seen the club not only habitually sell their best players, but struggle forth with a much reduced budget as a result. This then came with an overall dearth of quality, of which this profligate policy would naturally invoke.
Can it be that this slow-burning, agonising death-by-transfer is now about to finally rock the club and see them lose their Premiership status for the first time ever? Now is not the time to be proudly wearing the shirt of a Villa fan.
Tim Sherwood, unproven, and, potentially, unpopular if results such as the weekend’s dire 1-0 loss at home to Stoke continue, is the man in charge. Yet his impetus that certainly saved the club from another relegation battle last spring is in severe danger of disappearing forever.
Villa are in great pain, and so they should be. It would be ridiculous to show Sherwood the door, given that he has bought virtually an entire new team of players in the summer that still haven’t clicked. Yet already, along with Newcastle and Sunderland, they occupy a relegation spot. Further still, incredibly, all three are cut adrift and we are barely into October.
The club are overwhelmingly missing the goals of the departed Christian Benteke – who was probably worth ten points a season – and the controlled, flourishing power of Fabian Delph in midfield. The question on the lips of fans now must surely be: do we keep faith with Sherwood or search again for another saviour?
Sherwood is in the unlucky position of circumstance; it’s not his fault about what has gone before, and a club needs stability so that a manager and his team can thrive. But, based on current evidence, there is little to suggest Villa are about to turn a corner any time soon. Plus, with this great football institution still up for sale, it is understandable why the fans are feeling so horribly low at the moment.
Sherwood can surely help his cause; the impotent 3-5-2 formation tried out against Stoke was an undisputed failure, and it still beggars belief that Alan Hutton gets anywhere near a football field given his ordinary (or extraordinary) ability to not influence a game. Gabby Agbonlahor, as well, looks a spent force, with his best days behind him.
It has been overlooked that the departure of Ron Vlaar in the summer has also robbed the Claret and Blues of one of the few players who could influence a game. Yes, he did have some shockers, but on his day, he was solid, and offered a strong defensive base from which to use his leadership skills and inspire his teammates. With virtually a new back four (less of course the painfully over-faced Hutton), goalkeeper Brad Guzan has also been exposed and the signs look ominous.
With Sunderland now realising that they, too, can no longer cheat fate, and having departed with Dick Advocaat (a move that may ultimately make very little difference), it is time for someone at the club to take responsibility and come through the storm. It may well be that Sherwood’s new signings do eventually gel and get results, but, even at this embryonic stage of the season, the trigger fingers are twitching.
The only thing in Villa’s favour is that at least their next league game is against Chelsea…
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