Been an interesting ride but it's time for a change at Villa

Oh dear.

 

Managerless after four years of O’Neill’s wonderfulness.  Has it been that wonderful?  It’s easy to focus on the bad times, because despite some wonderful results, forays into Europe and two, count them, two trips to Wembley, there have been dodgy signings, incomprehensible team selections and just how many times did you come back from a home game, even when we’d won, saying that we weren’t that good.

 

Despite the sort of transfer budget that Ellis era managers could only have dreamt of, Martin’s win percentage was 40%. To put that into context, this was one percent lower than that of the much maligned John Gregory.

 

Odd signings abounded from the start.  I never really understood why anyone would think for example that Zat Knight was anything other than a ricket in the penalty area waiting to happen.  Curtis Davies may have had potential but we paid way over the odds for him and injuries and lack of opportunity have undoubtedly forced him backwards.  Did anyone understand the signing of Marlon Harewood – bizarre to say the least?  I’m not going to have a pop at Heskey, I believe he has many good qualities and was one of England’s better players at the World Cup but he was and remains an awkward fit into our set up.

 

Criticising the signing of Sidwell is all too easy with the benefit of hindsight – none of us were too upset about it when he joined. The question is – was he or Reo-Coker for that matter – ever given enough game time to realise their potential? I’d venture not. This brings to matters of team selection and squad rotation.  O’Neill was playing virtually the same team every game last year.  They were out on their feet on times and squad players must have been busting a gut to get on that pitch.  If he didn’t trust them, why did he blow millions on them?  Carlos Cuellar never really found his feet at right back – constantly getting caught out of position while specialist right back and for me one of the best players in the squad Luke Young couldn’t get a look in. 

 

The crunch of this came for me in key home games against Sunderland & Wolves when I remain convinced that squad rotation would not only enabled us to win those games but leave the “first picks” fresher for other games.  I genuinely still think we would have won the Carling Cup had this happened.

 

I think criticism of Randy Lerner is unfounded and unfair.  I believe he is a businessman who sees Aston Villa as a business opportunity and not a hole to throw vast sums of cash into.  I believe he is the sort of man to wish to see a return on his investments.  By selling Milner and possibly Young he will not doubt realise this but will also be aware of costly failures such Curtis Davies and Steve Sidwell.  I don’t think the days of big investment by Mister Lerner are over by any stretch of the imagination but it is completely understandable that he may want to proceed with caution.

 

Compare the situation of the last four years with those of the previous four under O’Dreary and Graham Taylor’s saddening second coming and there has of course been a vast improvement.  Compare them to the tenures of Brian Little and even Gregory and I’d say they were pretty similar.   

 

O’Neill’s low point was undoubtedly when throwing away Villa’s exciting UEFA Cup run on a fateful night when he decided not only to drop senior players but not even take them to play on the bench.  He split the fans down the middle on that one, as he did when signing Heskey.  Many he never won back and once you lose a section of support, there’s really only ever going to be one outcome.  It was at this point that the writing was on the wall.

 

So 2009/10 proved to be the final season of Martin’s reign and with our most realistic tilt in years at the top four and two excellent cup runs, it was a final season to be proud of.

 

We may never know what the final straw that broke the camel’s back was - but I for one think that the spiralling wage bill - much of it going to player's he wasn't prepared to pay was at the heart of things.  With Villa’s wage bill already running at 85% of turnover and contributing to a massive operating loss, one can’t blame Lerner or the Chief Exec if they baulked at that sort of pay claim.  Spurs have team full of big names and their wage bill is millions cheaper than ours.

It should have been time to kick on but now we’re back to square one.  Tough times may lie ahead but then it’s the tough times that make you really appreciate the good ones when they come.  Martin may have gone but the Villa go marching on.  That’s what we do.  We’re Claret & Blue.