March 24th 2010. Aston Villa 1 Sunderland 1.
Boos ring out around Villa Park. Vicious boos.
A midweek draw with Ricky Sbragia’s side mean Martin O’Neill’s men have tied two games in five days at Villa. As a result, Villa have missed out on a chance to go top of the league.
The Holte End don’t like it. They let the players and the manager feel the full brunt force of their expectation.
Martin O’Neill is criticised for a negative style; for not rotating his squad enough; for playing both John Carew and Emile Heskey up top. The manager is lambasted. Villa’s lack of ambition to challenge for the title instead of just the top four is condemned.
They expect more in B6. They demand more.
Some difference, eh?
The team finished sixth again that season. They fell short. They disappointed. Sixth.
Gareth Barry’s bombshell was dealt with remarkably. Stiliyan Petrov and James Milner filled the void seamlessly but the latter of which was now pissing off to City and O’Neill wasn’t even allowed to use that money to reinvest in the squad that had been kicking at the Champions League door for three seasons.
He left in August. He was allowed to leave.
Ever since, it has been a nose-dive for the Premier League exit doors.
As far as the owner was concerned, they hadn’t fulfilled their objective of joining the European elite. They missed out on that money and he wasn’t about to give it one last push. He would, of course, grant Gerard Houllier £24m to spend on Darren Bent in the next window – doubling what O’Neill, or the club, had ever spent on one player – and that was just a necessary form of firefighting that would persist for over five years.
One by one though, people at the club would give up the fight and put down the extinguishers. Randy Lerner would disappear to America. Coaches would come and go. Players would jump ship. And, finally, the ones that were left there – ill-equipped as they might be – just decided to lie down and accept their fate.
Aston Villa are headed for the Championship and they’re headed there at the worst possible time.
A 5.14 billion pound TV deal is coming to the Premier League and Randy Lerner – who has half-heartedly attempted to flog the club for way above what it should be valued at – will miss out on it and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer man. It couldn’t have happened to a prouder club though.
Three second-tier outfits will come up next season and will instantly have a leg up on Aston Villa Football Club. Even if Villa got promoted again, they’d constantly be swimming against a tide they could once turn themselves. They’ll forever be playing catch-up on teams they once looked down on. On teams they once expected to beat. Teams they were booed off their own pitch for not seeing off with ease.
And the days of outrage from the fallout of Martin O’Neill and the board granting high wages to players so they could assemble a strong squad will have long since dissipated.
Because they’ll look back and realise that the Irish manager was the one holding that mad house together. He was the only one in the last two decades trying to meet the expectations of Villa Park. And he was the one that started this inevitable decline – when they decided that it was okay to let him leave.
Copa 90 put together a video that detailed the effect that the once mighty Aston Villa’s plight has had on its supporters. It’s downtrodden, it’s almost harrowing.
But it’s a long way from the days that the team were booed for missing out on top spot in March. It’s a long way from the Martin O’Neill days.
Randy Lerner is reaping what he has sowed.
Martin O’Neill was the one who got away. And he wasn’t even fully appreciated in his own time.
