Aston Villa have for a number of years been a team going nowhere good and from start to finish this season was a complete and utter disaster for the Lions. A poor start to the season saw Tim Sherwood sacked in October after six defeats on the spin. Remi Garde was appointed a week or two later and performances improved ever so slightly, but come the half way point Villa remained bottom with just eight points. The writing was on the wall already at that stage and come March after overseeing just two wins the Frenchman departed the club to be replaced by Eric Black for the remainder of the season. With just seven games left, Black was never going to be able to mastermind a great escape and Villa were relegated were four games still left to play. None of the players were significantly impressive and indeed a number of them seemed to give up and in all too easily in a number of games. One feels that if Villa do not come straight back up that they could be looking at a long term spell out of the top flight. Behind the scenes the club still appears to be a mess, a situation that has prevailed for a number of years now.
