Aston villa crisis..

Villa in freefall

By Daniel O’Sullivan

For the past 3 seasons, Aston Villa had got 3 successive 6^th places finishes in the English Premier League under Northern Irishman and former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill.

This year however, Aston Villa have struggled at the wrong end of the premier league all season, now seemingly having a very low chance of even getting into the top half.

Villa’s season got off to the worst possible start with Martin O’Neill quitting the midlands club just five days before the start of the Premier League season, a move which shocked not only Villa fans, but all football fans across the country!

With Villa having a mediocre pre season, they started the first game in the league with Kevin McDonald, reserve team manager, as caretaker manager of the first team and he got of to a great start, with Villa beating West Ham 3-0, a game to be influential midfielder James Milners last for the club. Milner, voted Villa’s player of the season in the 09-10 season, was sold to Manchester City for £24 million, with Stephen Ireland coming in the opposite direction.

This was to be the only transfer activity of the summer transfer window for Villa, and with a credible 1-1 draw against Rapid Vienna in the Europa league, Villa’s season started to go downhill, and fast. Losing to Newcastle at St James’ park 6-0 in a battering by the recently promoted North East club, villa then went out of Europe, losing 2-3 to Rapid Vienna in the Europa League second leg.

With no new manager in site, Kevin McDonald carried on as caretaker manager, getting 2 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses in all of his 7 games, a run which convinced Villa owner Randy Lerner he would not be the man to lead Aston Villa’s team forward.

Then a move that left Villa fans with some optimism for rest of the campaign. Aston Villa introduced Gerard Houllier as new manager. The former Liverpool and Lyon manager has had an impressive record at club level, winning the treble of League Cup, FA cup and UEFA cup, as it was then known, in 2001 with Liverpool as well as winning the League twice with French club Lyon and enjoying the role of technical director when France won the World Cup in 1999, with Gerard Houllier been recognized for his contribution to this achievement. 

This sort of manager left Villa fans hopeful they could still break into the top four and resurrect a so far disappointing season. They, however, would be mistaken.

Despite 2 wins in his first 2 games, draws against Chelsea home and away and a draw against Manchester United, Villa went into the January transfer Window after a 4-0 hammering against Manchester City and 15^th in the table, a record which didn’t sit well with Villa fans or Gerard Houllier himself.

With the arrivals of Michael Bradley, Jean Makoun II and a 24 million pound record deal for Darren Bent, Villa fans were again left hopeful something could be salvaged from this so far disappointing season, especially with Bent scoring on his debut with the only goal as Villa edged past Manchester City.

Again, however, in the coming couple of months, the excitement was diminished which saw Villa crash out of the FA cup to Manchester City and has saw Villa only win once in seven games since the close of the January transfer window, which saw them drop into the relegation zone, albeit only for a week!

Now with recent loses to Bolton and local rivals and fellow strugglers Wolves, Villa now lie just 1 point above third from bottom Wolves with 8 games remaining in what is surely 8 of the most important games in Aston Villa’s Premier League history!!