As Sunderland languish at the bottom of the table, and as Gus Poyet’s team suffered another loss at the weekend, it had me thinking – are the Mackems offering us a glimpse into what could have been for our own team?

After all, there are a lot of parallels between us and Sunderland before Paul Lambert took over.

American owner? Check.
Formerly managed by Martin O’Neill? Check.
Manager churn? Check.

In short, there’s a lot of similarities.

Like Aston Villa, Sunderland have found themselves in trouble. Although Villa are still not out of the woods yet, I imagine most Sunderland fans would trade their squad and position with ours in a heartbeat.

What is certain is that Poyet faces a significant challenge as he becomes their third manager in little more than than six months. Whilst Lambert at least managed to succeed a manager who got a whole season to prove himself – even if many fans wanted Alex McLeish sacked well before – there are significant similarities.

Like Lambert, Poyet will need to hit the ground running. Sunderland finished just three points above the relegation zone last season, and whilst many may criticise Lambert’s plans at Villa – or the fact he only finished five points above relegated Wigan Athletic – what Villa’s manager has achieved in a short space of time is stability.

Sure, that stability isn’t in the top six, nor is it a stability that is having world class players flood into Villa Park, but it is stability. Whilst it is far too early to predict that Villa will certainly be safe this season, I’d imagine there is a strong likelihood that they will finish a touch higher than last season, even if it turns out to be only a place or two.

Getting back to Sunderland, Poyet was my first choice pick for Villa manager after McLeish left. However, I admitted he wouldn’t get the job due to his lack of Premier League experience, thus my backing was for Paul Lambert as the person I thought the board would pick.

Few can doubt that Poyet has done well in the early stages of management, and that he has an attitude towards flair football that is likely to excite fans. However, so did Paolo di Canio, and I’m sure most Sunderland fans will be happy to forget his tenure at the club.

Whilst Sunderland’s progress isn’t likely to be particularly relevant to us as fans of Villa, how Poyet manages to progress (or not progress) the club in the face of danger will illustrate, in relative terms, how well Lambert has done.

Why? When it comes to the Premier League, Sunderland are as close as Villa could be seen as a club in present terms. Now before I get bombarded with the bigger history that we have, the clubs are fairly similar in recent years – a similar size stadium, similar owner, and similar ability to attract players to name three similarities – so they are likely to be a fair comparison for progress.

Maybe Poyet will do amazingly well, and Sunderland will find themselves well away from the relegation zone come the end of the season. Maybe they will finish higher than Villa, thus proving that Poyet may well have been a better fit for Villa. Maybe it will be Villa who go down instead.

Or, maybe, Sunderland won’t escape, leaving a team in the North East in pieces, but showing that Villa could have been in the exact situation if Lambert hadn’t stabilised things.

Progress at Villa Park may be slow, and it may be frustrating but, depending on how things pan out for the Mackems, we could well see just how fortunate (or unfortunate) we are to have picked our current manager rather than Sunderland’s new boss.

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