O’Neill’s magnetic personality and relentless positivity, allied to owner Randy Lerner’s willingness to back his manager in the transfer market, led Villa to consecutive sixth place finishes in the three years preceding the Northern Irishman’s departure. Despite this relative success – which featured a run to the 2010 League Cup final – Lerner made the decision to strangle the funds available for player purchases, apparently wearied by the outlay that had been required merely to breach the top six.
Not every one of O’Neill’s buys had the desired impact but there can be no denying the quality of arrivals such as; Stiliyan Petrov, Ashley Young, James Milner, Brad Friedel and Richard Dunne. Lerner made an exception to his more frugal approach halfway through Gerard Houllier’s only season in charge with Villa scrambling desperately in the lower parts of the league. Darren Bent was signed for £24m and proceeded to score the goals which spirited his team up the table.
Regardless of the post-Bent improvement the Villains couldn’t shake the negativity that had taken hold since O’Neill’s resignation. That was crystallised with the summer 2011 sales of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing – the men who were supposed to provide the ammunition for Bent -, and most notably the appointment, to widespread dismay, of former Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish as Villa’s new manager.
2011/2012 was a season of misery for the club’s followers, the side winning a meagre seven league fixtures and playing an unattractive brand of football, characterised by a complete paucity of ambition. The only succour for those fans was that despite their nine-month struggle, Villa avoided a bottom three finish. They were appeased further when 24 hours after an insipid final day loss at Norwich City McLeish was removed from his post.
Two years of dissent and disappointment at the 1982 European Champions hadn’t eroded the prestige of Aston Villa in the eyes of Paul Lambert who saw the club as a step up from Norwich, the side he so magnificently led to a double promotion and fine inaugural year in the top-flight.
Lambert, fully aware of likely restrictions on his spending capacity and the inexperienced squad in place, was prepared to stake his burgeoning reputation on improving the fortunes of what remains one of England’s foremost clubs. The Scot’s influence has been slow to bear tangible reward but even on the most testing days, unlike under McLeish, a sense of purpose has been perceptible.
After a slow start, in which the Midlanders were limply beaten at West Ham and dismantled at home by a rampant Everton, the purveyors of gloom were quickly rearing their heads. This Villa team however, are filled with steel and a group of young players receptive of their manager’s ideas and hungry to learn and perform.
The evolution of such a young side in the toughest possible environment is understandably a slow burner, but this headstrong bunch dug out draws at Newcastle United and at home against West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City before giving us a glimpse of their potential with first, a hard-fought single-goal win at Sunderland, and then a pulsating half of football which earned an – eventually spurned – 2-0 lead against Manchester United.