Manchester City 4, Aston Villa 0: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict - and what they should do now
Dec 29 2010 by Mat Kendrick, Birmingham Mail
“MANCHESTER City will get stronger again. To keep up with them is going to be hard.
“I knew that at the start of the season and next year it will be the same again. If City got very, very strong and won the Champions League for the next two to three years, people would be delighted, but for clubs like Aston Villa, it would be a problem for us.”
So said Martin O’Neill the last time Villa exited Eastlands.
Back then, on May 1, the claret and blues were challenging for the top four. Last night they were struggling to stay out of the bottom four – and that, in itself, gives some insight into O’Neill’s bombshell resignation just five days before this season commenced.
City are now competing at the very top. Villa are a hefty 18 points behind them. Whether it was prophetic, or pathetic, O’Neill predicted this winter of discontent. And ‘problem’ might have been a slight understatement.
A bit like Tony Blair leaving Gordon Brown to pick up the mess, O’Neill’s exit strategy was well-timed in terms of self preservation if not for the good of the party.
It was ironic that O’Neill’s concerns about City’s multi billions blowing the rest of the top flight away came from a manager second behind his Eastlands counterparts in terms of spending. O’Neill was right to rue the sales of Villa’s best two players of recent seasons, Gareth Barry and James Milner, who City could afford to leave out of yesterday’s starting line-up.
But the presence of Isaiah Osbourne on the bench of a club who themselves have splashed out around £140 million on players makes its own statement about the ex-boss’s transfer legacy. Not that the new coalition of Gerard Houllier, Gary McAllister and Gordon Cowans can solely blame the mess they inherited. With just 13 points from 14 league games they must take responsibility.
Granted, Houllier has rarely been able to field his first-choice XI and Emile Heskey, Ashley and Luke Young are the latest injury victims. But, even so, it’s relegation form.
Just because City have moved the goalposts – that shouldn’t automatically mean Villa can’t keep the ball out of theirs’ or put it between their opponents’. A total of 34 goals conceded and 20 scored is every bit as grim as the lowly position in the table and paltry points tally of 20.
However, Villa need to focus on how they put it right, rather than dwell on why it went wrong.
While the fans’ frustration is understandable, “What a load of rubbish” and anti-Houllier chants are not helpful to a club determined to keep faith with the current manager. There’s no legendary Joe Mercers out there at the moment, as City’s ‘Go get Sam Allardyce’ taunts prove.
As for knee-jerk calls for Randy Lerner to sell up to a make-believe wealthy oil billionaire, there are no great sheikhs in terms of available owners either.
Having tried and failed to compete with City financially, Villa will continue their prudent policy. The hope must be, in January and next summer, Houllier can recruit senior players who respond better to his methods than many of the present personnel. And that he has a much better transfer success ratio than his predecessor.
If that means trading in John Carew, Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne to free up more funds for fees and wages then so be it. Don’t read too much into tales of unrest in Villa’s squad. City have rivalled Corrie as Manchester’s biggest soap opera in recent months and yet they’re not doing too badly now are they?
