Not renowned for their patience, the denizens of Villa Park have bucked that trend this year – and how. Thoroughly dispirited by the on-field decline of their club since it secured three top-six Premier League finishes in consecutive years under Martin O’Neill, fans of the 1982 European Champions might have been expected to turn on their current manager and his young players during some extremely testing dark mid-winter days.
If the post-O’Neill season under Gerard Houllier had been underwhelming, – it was eventually rescued only by the daring £24m capture of Darren Bent – last term under Alex McLeish had consigned Villa’s followers to some of the most stupefying fare it could be the misfortune of a paying spectator to witness.
Allied to the steady loss of high-profile and key performers such as; Gareth Barry, James Milner, Ashley Young, and Stewart Downing, the outward impression being presented by the Midlands club was one of an outfit content to drift along in top-flight mediocrity.
The appointment of the dynamic Norwich City manager, Paul Lambert, to the Villa hot-seat has changed that perception. The man who steered the Canaries to successive promotions cast his eye towards a bright and enterprising future for his new employers, by implementing a recruitment policy based around obtaining a number of promising young players – largely plucked from the lower leagues.
If those on the terraces suspected the real story behind Lambert’s trading was a newly enforced cap on ambition, they did not voice their concern. A distinctly sticky opening to the campaign didn’t stop over 34,000 traipsing through the Villa Park turnstiles for a goalless November draw with Arsenal.
The most forbidding test of the Holte End’s unqualified backing for their side came during an awful period which lasted through December and January. There was little warning to Villa’s impending alarming spell of form when, ten days before Christmas, they tore through Liverpool at Anfield, coming away 3-1 victors after a stylish display that had many observers – this writer included – purring at what this burgeoning group might achieve.
Before the presents were unwrapped however, Lambert’s team had been humiliated 8-0 at Chelsea. Still to come was a two-leg League Cup semi-final defeat against Bradford City. A new low seemed to be hit every week. In the space of four days prior to the new year, Tottenham and Wigan Athletic won by four and three goals respectively, on Villa’s patch.
January would bring an F.A. Cup loss at Championship side Millwall, and a home reverse against Newcastle United. That latter defeat could have sparked uproar among home loyalists. The Geordies, replete with a raft of transfer window signings, had taken three points from a bottom of the table tussle against an adversary which had chiefly sat on its collective hands when the opportunity to strengthen a greenhorn squad had arrived.
Excellent piece of football journalism.