Former-Leicester boss Nigel Pearson is the favourite to be the next Aston Villa boss
Some Aston Villa fans may not agree with the above statement, but relegation to the Championship may just be a blessing in disguise.
For too long the Villans have been treading water in the English top-flight and now they have reached rock-bottom in the Premier League.
The side from the Midlands will not go down as the worst team in the history of the Premier League points-wise, but they are pretty close to that label when it comes to quality of the actual players.
In truth the club are in a terrible mess and the whole campaign has been a debacle.
The squad has been stagnating for years now
Last summer’s exits of Christian Benteke and captain Fabian Delph were devastating blows to the core of the Villans team. They were by far the best players on the Villans books and it was a familiar story for the club from the Midlands of losing their best players.
Villa owner Randy Lerner seems to have lost interest in the club and it has led to the Villans attempting to be self-sufficient, which in the English top-flight is very rare in these days of mega-rich owners and big money transfers.
Tim Sherwood attempted to strengthen his squad the best he could with a plethora of new players arriving using the money received from the sales of Benteke and Delph, but hardly any of the new signings have been up to English top-flight standards.
Young full-back Jordan Amavi showed a lot of promise prior to sustaining a knee injury in November and Ghana international Jordan Ayew has shown some flashes of ability and would probably thrive with better teammates.
It would not be a massive surprise to see those two move to other Premier Leagues, or top-flight clubs in other European leagues. However the Villans are going to find it hard to get rid of a number of their players, but have to in order to rebuild their team and shattered reputation.
A strong manager is needed
Aston Villa have had numerous managers over the past few seasons. However it is not the dugout where the problems have lied. The players have simply not been good enough and the bosses have not had the resources to bring in a better standard of player.
Tim Sherwood had to gamble in the transfer market last summer, as he did not have much to work with and his squad was poor. The next Villa boss will have to come in and demand that he is backed prior to taking the job.
If that does not happen then Villa could languish in the Championship for a long time, as their current squad are demoralised and just not good enough.
The next boss will need to be ruthless and attempt to start again with remnants of years of decay at the club. Hopefully a strong and intelligent boss can either work with what he has, or sell off the players he can and start again almost from scratch, because that is just how bad it is.
A challenge on their hands
Former-Leicester boss Nigel Pearson is the current favourite to become next Villa boss at odds of 11/10, with the likes of Simon Grayson and David Moyes also believed to be in the running.
Moyes seems to be the favourite with Vila fans themselves, but the former-Everton boss is probably now eying the top job at old-club Celtic after the announcement that Hoops boss Ronny Deila is leaving at the end of the campaign.
Pearson seems to divide opinion amongst Villa fans. He enjoyed success at Leicester guiding the Foxes to promotion and keeping them up. However he is regarded as a rather controversial character and some fans on forums have accused him of being a bully.
Simon Grayson would be a major gamble, as Villa would be a massive step-up from Preston, where he has done an exceptional job.
Hopefully the Villans can find a good manager to help get them out of their current mess, as they are a massive club, but they face a major challenge in getting back to the Premier League.
However, now that their relegation has been confirmed and the dust has settled the club can move forward this summer and at some point return to the English top-flight stronger than before.
Who is to blame for Aston Villa’s woes?
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