After a series of wins, we are up in the top half of the table, and I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling good about it. After a period where some of the fans would have you believe we were practically dead and buried, Aston Villa has started to rise up like a phoenix from the flames of a very bad season. Mathematically Villa are not quite safe yet, but we are certainly a lot safer than 11 other teams in the league. To fall from our current position back into the bottom three would take a cataclysmic level of incompetence, and I believe that it is unlikely that this would occur. We are far from guaranteed a top half finish due to the fact that teams below us either have a game in hand, or are on very similar point scores, but we should have it in us to stay safe.
Where do we go from here?
So with that level of breathing space in place, the questions posed from here on in are more focussed on what exactly the future will hold for the club. Whilst we are not at the end of the season just yet, many fans put an uncertain view on the future of the manager, as well as the future of some of the key players. My personal view on these matters is that Gerard Houllier will be the manager next season (barring a shock resignation on his part), Ashley Young will be here as a player (Manchester City aren’t interested in him and is Randy Lerner really that desperate for the £8-10m he would bring in?), and we will see the development of other younger players such as Chris Herd, Jonathan Hogg, Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark, Marc Albrighton, and Nathan Delfouneso.
Looking back at that list of players, and seeing that both Clark and Albrighton have performed capably over this season, we have a lot of positives to look at. This season was doomed to be write off even before day one after the sudden departure of our former manager. The season wasn’t going to give us another 6th place finish after losing arguably our best player, and the manager of the team. However I doubt any of us saw either the relegation form that we have endured this season, or the spectacular levels of fallout between players and staff.
I think it is fair to say that we all appreciated that Houllier and O’Neill were tactical chalk and cheese, but to turn a top 6 team into a team who spent large portions of the season in precarious positions was an unbelievable oversight when it comes to both man management, and tactical setup. The ongoing MON vs Houllier debate seems to fall into two camps – those who thought the former manager was the messiah for grabbing sixth, and those who thought that he was far from prudent when it came to who he purchased. Nobody can doubt that we got to a cup final, and spent our time in the upper echelons of the league but, by the same token, nobody can really suggest that swapping Gary Cahill for Zat Knight was the finest level of scouting transfer targets. The reality of the matter is that both Houllier and O’Neill had/have differing levels of faults and, in my opinion, neither of them were/are the long term salvation of the club.
Backwards to go forwards
There is no doubt that sometimes it requires a step back to make two steps forward. For Aston Villa, this was (and still is) certainly a season of taking steps backwards. Some of these steps were created as a result of things that were impossible to change by the manager, whereas others clearly and plainly sat in his lap. Gerard Houllier can’t be responsible for James Milner leaving for example, nor could he be to blame for the time he was appointed as manager. Those were either before his time, or way out of his control. On the other hand, there are some massive issues such as attempting to stamp his methods on the training regime so suddenly, the Anfield debacle, as well some of the most shocking tactical moves that made Carlos Cuellar at right back look like the work of Jose Mourinho.
The anti-Houllier brigade will be quick to say the club was disrespected at Anfield, and even earlier still when he came in a press conference and said Villa were a team fit to finish 8th – 12th. Whilst I was not so upset about the latter statement, I felt the Anfield situation to be totally inexcusable at the time. Some of the media comments about “If I had to lose to a team, I would prefer it to be Liverpool” were taken totally out of context, but there was no ambiguity about touching the Anfield sign. Looking at it objectively, one could say that Houllier doing that was a moment of madness spawned out of a successful time at the club and, in that regard, it was no different to Jose Mourinho speaking of his love for Chelsea whilst at Inter Milan or Real Madrid. Is it “right”? Certainly in the eyes of some it isn’t, but is it that wrong that you want to sack the guy? Again, the detractors will say that it is not just about that, it is about the fact that Villa were being realistically touted by some sports people to be the surprise relegation candidates.
Bright future? Or waking up to stark reality?
However the above point is largely peripheral. The reality underneath all this conjecture is somewhat more black and white. At the age of 63, Houllier is certainly not one for the long term future. Whilst people can reel out the names of Alex Ferguson or Fabio Capello as managers who are older, both of those men are not really indicative of our current situation. Ferguson came to Manchester United in his mid 40s and built a dynasty, whereas Capello is an international manager and will invariably not be with England beyond 2012 anyway. What Aston Villa need to be doing at this point in their life is looking at building foundations. For all the PR spouted, players bought, and managers hired, the reality is that Aston Villa have been papering over the cracks for a long time. A long time isn’t just the tenure of Randy Lerner, it is a slow decline that has been part of the club for at least 20 years, if not more. We have been a half season club who couldn’t last the distance either fading at the end of the season, or failing to get out of the starting blocks fast enough. We’ve had a solid defence but very rarely owned a 20 goals a season striker.
Villa has been built on foundations that were either not good enough, not long term enough, or acts of miserly progress. Nobody is suggesting spending a huge windfall like Manchester City, but the adage “Speculate to accumulate” is particularly relevant. It absolutely rips me up inside to be so honest about my beloved club, but acting like an ostrich with their head in the sand isn’t going to solve our problems. People wondered why we had a glass ceiling of 6th, and I will tell you why.
The root of the problem
Some of the issues underpinning why our success isn’t there are a lot more deep rooted than just Aston Villa Football Club. We are part of a footballing nation that suffer from the same set of arrogant delusions that our club does. We have won major silverware just like our nation has, but it has papered over cracks and given us an arrogant swagger that is, in the eyes of others, totally unjustified. As a footballing nation (and speaking as a former coach of football teams), we ruin our footballing progress at the age of 11 when we move our kids from a small pitch to a large one. In that moment we stunt the technical development of players, and end up producing Agbonlahors and Delfounesos rather than Messis or Ronaldos. One could argue that creating fast players is part of the nature of the English game, but the English (and more importantly for this article Aston Villa) style has won nothing for years. The reasoning for that is because this bulldog spirit only goes so far. I was very pleased when we adopted a “buy British” mentality under a series of Aston Villa managers, but the reality is that this mentality is never going to make us successful anywhere beyond sixth or so. If you look at the winners of the title over the past 20 years, you will see that it is no coincidence that the majority of players at the top are neither British, nor of a British mentality. However we quite arrogantly put a premium on the “British” tag, and you will find that if a player is British (more specifically English) they will immediately command a higher fee than their foreign counterparts. Before anyone jumps in and mentions the Manchester United golden generation, there have still be numerous foreign influences in the areas of flair, creativity, and other areas where the English lack so badly.
So what do we need at Villa? We need a beacon that is going to do more than just provide fast forwards for the England team. We need a real set of foundations put in on the level of Barcelona. I don’t mean that we need to try to buy Lionel Messi, but I do mean that we have to put real solid focus on the technical development of our footballers from the youngest age, not when the players are 18/19/20. The success of Barcelona isn’t something of a random occurrance, it is down to operating a football club with a long term view, rather than attempting to just stay afloat. This is part of what Gerard Houllier tried to bring to the table at the start of the season, although as I’m sure you’ll agree, his execution of said plan was far from smooth.
Aston Villa wants a bright future, but a bright future starts with building something out of nothing. For once, looking up from the bottom rather than down from the top might just give us the shock that we need to move on.
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