Soccer Portal

Twelve months ago, Aston Villa were a team feared by all clubs in the Premier League. Their free flowing, attacking football made them a threat to all that ventured to Villa Park and even on their travels, teams would struggle to against the Midlands outfit. On the cusp of breaking the coveted top four the past few years saw Villa making great strides as a team and a club. With a manager capable of taking them to the next level and an owner willing to financially back the man at the helm, Aston Villa appeared to be ready to make that leap from the Europa League to the Champions League.

In the eye of the public, all seemed well at Aston Villa. Yet, behind the scenes conflict between manager Martin O’Neill and owner Randy Lerner was at an all time high. Rumours, that were constantly denied, circulated from February that both didn’t see eye-to-eye and the working relationship between the two was paper thin at best. With Lerner wanting O’Neill to re-coup the funds spent on players to help balance the books, O’Neill chose to ignore the orders of his employer and continued to spend in order to turn Aston Villa into a serious force to be reckoned with.

Tensions finally reached boiling between the two as O’Neill resigned days before the beginning of the new season leaving former reserve team coach Kevin MacDonald in charge of first team affairs on a temporary basis. A shaky start ensued for MacDonald with only two wins from his eight game reign and, despite the Scotsman declaring his interest in taking the role permanently, Randy Lerner opted to hire former Liverpool and Lyon manager Gerard Houiller.

Charged with the task of taking the Midlands outfit forward, Houllier has rather taken a decent Villa side two steps in the wrong direction rather than one step in the right. At the time of writing, Villa are currently languishing in 15^th place having only taken four points from the last eighteen available and are in real danger of being dragged into a relegation fight as they sit two points ahead of Fulham and Midlands rivals Birmingham in the bottom three.

It is a peculiar position Aston Villa find themselves in especially with the likes of Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor and Aston Villa trainee Marc Albrighton three of the first names on the team-sheet and just three of the players that would be comfortable turning out for teams higher in the league and it is these three, amongst others, that must strive to improve Villas position in the league.

With the players mentioned above, the problem must fall at the feet of Houllier about the current state of affairs at Villa. Fans were not keen on his employment in the first place and it appears certain players feel the same way with Richard Dunne and Stephen Ireland just two high profile cases of players voicing their concern about the manager. Yet, Houllier must not shoulder the blame for the current crisis at Villa Park. Houllier picks the players but doesn’t play the game and it is up for key players to step up now or face a relegation scrap as the season draws on.

With that in mind Villa do have the talent to get out of their current rut but to say their too good to go down is preposterous. No team is too good to get relegated from the Premiership but they have to do something quickly to right the wrongs that has caused them to slide down the table.