Aston Villa- The lowest of the low

Well they have been preparing for the championship all year.

In 1992 the 22 top teams in the first division broke away to form the premier league. Only seven remain who have never left, They are Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton (though they have come close a couple of times to go down), Liverpool (though for a while I did think they would go down in 2010) Manchester United, Tottenham (though in 2008 it seemed for a few weeks that they would go down) and Aston Villa. The last team who was part of this group to go down was Leeds in 2004. Now unless a miracle happens Aston Villa will be leaving the premier league and I would be surprised if we see them again any time soon.

But how did Villa get into this mess? In 2010 they were a great club. Yes, they weren't a TOP club but they were steady and were in Europe. However, this is where it all started to go wrong. This is the starting point of the tale of woe.

Martin O'Neill, in my opinion, is an underrated manager who did one amazing thing at Celtic which makes him a legend. He kept Henrik Larsson there for seven years. (oh and he won loads of trophies as well). Then he did amazing things at Villa winning trophies (okay maybe just the Intertoto cup but that's still a huge achievement. However, in 2010 O'Neill sensed that Randy Lerner wasn't really wanting to dig much deeper into his pockets and could see what was about to happen and jumped off the sinking ship.

Villa went downhill without O'Neill to guide them. Gérard Houllier was chosen as the new manager but his heart issues were always going to be a major concern and he only lasted a season. Villa finished 9th in the 2010-2011 season thanks to a good run of form at the end of the season but sold big players such as James Milner in the process. 

The 2011-12 season was a huge disaster compared to the previous years. Signing Alex McLeish as manager was a huge mistake as he was hugely disliked from his time as Birmingham manager. They also sold key players such as Ashley Young and Stewart Downing which went down as well as McLeish. Nothing went right for the team or McLeish and they only just stayed up by two points. However, the tragic news about Stiliyan Petrov the captain being diagnosed with leukemia may have distracted the players towards the end of the season so there may be mitigating circumstances. 

So onto the 2012-2013 season and things could only be better right? Well sort of. Alex Mcleish was sacked (Not too many fans were upset about that) and Paul Lambert who was the manager of Norwich was brought in. They made a few good signings in the Summer such as Ron Vlaar and Christian Benteke. But all season they seemed to tread water and also leak goals. Despite Benteke Scoring 19 goals in the league they only came 15th one place better than the previous season. Alarm bells were ringing big time that Villa may be in big trouble.

Now onto 2013-2014 and Surely Lerner hears these huge Alarm bells going off and thinks Either A- I should invest in the club to make sure we do better or B- I should Invest in the Club and make sure I can sell it for a decent price and leave the club in a decent place. No. He heard none of these and did C- Do nothing and see what happens. The Result saw a decent start for the team descend into the usual losses for the team. Nothing really changed and they got the same result as the previous year. 15th. 

Surely now Learner can see what is going wrong and do A or B. Okay he does a little bit of A and brings in Cissokho a defender and Sánchez a midfielder to hopefully stop the team leaking goals in the 2014-15 season. However, that proved not to be the issue this time around. It was incredibly lack of goals that nearly did Villa in. Another Strong start descended into farce and by February Villa had gone 11 hours without a goal. The fans turned on Lambert after a dreadful performance against Hull of all teams and Lerner agreed and Lambert was sacked. In came Tim Sherwood who managed to steady the team and got them to the fa cup final (luckily coming across a Liverpool team who were beyond bad) however a sign of what was coming met them in the final when they lost 4-0 to Arsenal.

So onto this season and how did it start. Well, Club Captain Delph wanted originally to stay with the team but must have seen what was coming by the owner and fled to Man City doing his England chances no harm. The end was coming. Benteke was sold to Liverpool for £32 million and Delph was sold for £8 million. So who was brought in instead? The huge talents such as Scott Sinclair (who had been on loan anyway), Micah Richards (unwanted at Man City and Fiorentina anyway), a well past his best Joleon Lescott and a few players from the lower leagues of the French and Spanish leagues. The Result. A first-day win against Bournemouth was a huge red herring and following that loss after loss (yes there was a draw somewhere). Learner thinking Sherwood was the problem sacked in and brought in Rémi Garde. Garde had never managed a top flight team and it showed. Yes he won two games but the team looked bad and hopefully, Learner would have allowed him a couple of signings to at least give the fans some hope. Nope. Villa signed nobody in January and Learner put the club up for sale (A couple of years too late). Garde was unfairly sacked in March and the club is now in free-fall. I think the chairman is totally to blame (but the players could show more effort).

So Aston Villa. Doomed since 2010? Maybe. Do the fans deserve such a disgraceful fate. not a chance. Lerner should be disgusted with himself. But he won't care. they never do......