Aston Villa unsurprisingly succumbed to another defeat over the weekend, this time at the hands of Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium with a resounding 4-0 scoreline.
The defeat was Villa’s fifth in their last six Premier League matches and now even a minor miracle is unlikely to stop the Villans suffering from the ignominy of the drop this season.
Many fans have long accepted that relegation is on the cards for Villa and while inevitable as it might seem, such a fate for one of the most historic clubs in England is certainly a sad indictment of the state of affairs at the club.
There are a plethora of reasons why Villa have been brought down to their knees and here are the top four reasons why the Midlands outfit are set to suffer their impending demise.
The loss of Christian Benteke over the summer
Given Benteke’s current struggles at Liverpool, the £32.5million earned by Villa on the sale of the Belgian international certainly looks like a very good deal.
Since Benteke’s departure though, Villa have been simply toothless in attack and their lack of cutting edge in front of goal has led to the current predicament for the Villans. Having scored only 22 goals so far, Villa simply have been atrocious in the final third and the loss of Benteke has certainly been sorely felt.
While the question of whether Benteke is worth £32.5million remains up for debate, he was arguably much more valuable than that to Villa and they now look set to pay the price just a year later by losing their Premier League status this season.
The spine of the team was torn apart
Benteke was arguably the most important player for Villa over the years but one should not forget that the likes of Fabian Delph, Ron Vlaar, Andi Weimann and Tom Cleverley all departed the club over the summer as well.
Such a mass exodus of players meant that Villa shot themselves in the foot and it was virtually impossible for them to even stand a chance as a result. A few key players departing can be rectified by bringing in like for like replacements but disrupting the core is suicide and such stupidity has cost Villa this season.
Admittedly, there were cases where players simply did not want to stay but allowing so many important figures to leave all at once is simply bad management.
‘Money Ball’ approach backfired
The Moneyball thesis can be explained an approach “using statistical analysis, which small-market teams can compete by buying assets that are undervalued by other teams and selling ones that are overvalued by other teams.”
While Villa may not openly admit it, they certainly implemented such a system in the summer transfer window. Sporting Director Hendrik Almstadt is known for his love of stats and it is widely believed that manager Tim Sherwood was not given any power in the transfer market to recruit new players by the club.
Instead little known players such as Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Veretout and and Jordan Amavi among others were brought in from the French League by Almstadt while the gamble on the likes of Adama Traore, Jordan Ayew, Rudy Gestede and Scott Sinclair has simply not worked out.
One cannot definitively say whether or not the Moneyball approach works in the Premier League but in Villa’s case, it certainly did not and they have found that the Premier League is more than just a numbers game the hard way.
Poor managerial appointments from the board
It has been clear to see for quite a while that owner Randy Lerner is planning to sell Aston Villa and he hopes of earning a profit before he gets out.
In order to keep Villa profitable, Lerner needs the club to retain their Premier League status but it seems unlikely that they will remain in the top flight if indeed the American businessman is able to sell up in the foreseeable future and he should point the finger solely at himself for the current situation.
Since the glory days of Martin O’Neill, Lerner has made one bad managerial appointment after the other. Gerard Houlier, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert, Tim Sherwood and Remi Garde have all contributed to Villa’s slide from European hopefuls to relegation certainties.
Arguably Lerner’s biggest aberration was appointing an inexperienced Premier League manager such as Garde back in November when the likes of Nigel Pearson, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup were all available and raring to return to the Premier League.
Garde simply looks out of ideas at the moment and things could get even worse for Villa if they do get the next managerial appointment spot on.
This article was written by Jack of Villa Till I Die – a brand new Aston Villa blog set up to discuss all things claret and blue.
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